Nance was coiling her smooth brown braids around her head, while Molly was looking sorrowfully at her only two available dresses for that evening"s party. One was a blue muslin of a heavenly color but considerably darned, and the other was a marquisette, also the worse for wear. Suddenly Nance gave a reckless toss of her hair brush in one direction and her comb in another, and rushed over to Molly, who was gazing absently into the closet.
"Oh, Molly," she cried impetuously, seizing her friend"s hand, "I"m a brute. Will you forgive me? I"m afraid I hurt your feelings. It"s just my unfortunate way of getting excited and saying too much. I never met any one I admired as much as you in such a short time. I wish I did know how to be charming to everybody, like you. It"s been ground into me since I was a child not to make friends with people unless it was to my advantage, and I found out they were entirely worthy. And it"s a slow process, I can tell you. You are the very first chance acquaintance I ever made in my life, and I like you better than any girl I ever met.
So there, will you say you have forgiven me?"
"Of course, I will," exclaimed Molly, flushing with pleasure. "There is nothing to forgive. I know I"m too indiscriminate about making friends.
Mother often complained because I would bring such queer children out to dinner when I was a child. Indeed, I wasn"t hurt a bit. It was the word "rag-tag," that seemed to be such an excellent description of the clothes I must wear this winter, unless some should drop down from heaven, like manna in the desert for the Children of Israel."
Without a word, Nance pulled a box out from under her couch and lifted the lid. It disclosed a little hand sewing machine.
"Can you sew?" she asked.
"After a fashion."
"Well, I can. It"s pastime with me. I"d rather make clothes than do lots of other things. Now, suppose we set to work and make some dresses. How would you like a blue serge, with turn-over collar and cuffs, like that one Miss Marks is wearing, that fastens down the side with black satin b.u.t.tons?"
"Oh, Nance, I couldn"t let you do all that for me," protested Molly.
"Besides, I haven"t the material or anything."
"Why don"t you earn some money, Molly?" suggested Nance. "There are lots of different ways. Mrs. Murphy, the housekeeper, was telling me about them. One of the girls here last year actually blacked boots--but, of course, you wouldn"t do anything so menial as that."
"Wouldn"t I?" interrupted Molly. "Just watch me. That"s a splendid idea, Nance. It"s a fine, honorable labor, as Colonel Robert Wakefield said, when his wife had to take in boarders."
Molly slipped on the blue muslin.
"It really doesn"t make any difference what she wears," thought Nance, looking at her friend with covert admiration. "She"d be a star in a crazy quilt."
The two girls hurried down to supper. Molly was thoughtful all through that conversational meal. Her mind was busy with a scheme by which she intended to remove that unceasing pressure for funds which bade fair to be an ever-increasing bugbear to her.
No. 16 on the Quadrangle turned out to be a very luxurious and comfortable suite of rooms, consisting of quite a large parlor, a little den or study and a bedroom. Mary Stewart met them at the door in such a plain dress that at first Molly was deceived into thinking it was just an ordinary frock until she noticed the lines. And in a few moments Nance took occasion to inform her that simplicity was one of the most expensive things in the world, which few people could afford, and furthermore that Mary Stewart"s gray, cottony-looking dress was a dream of beauty and must have come from Paris.
There were six or seven other girls in the crowd, including that little bird-like, bright-eyed creature they called "Jennie Wren," whose real name was Jane Wickham. The only other girl they knew was Judith Blount, who had been so snubby to Molly the day before about the luggage.
All these girls were musical, as the freshmen were soon to learn, and belonged to the College Glee Club.
"What a pretty room!" exclaimed Molly to her hostess, after she had been properly introduced and enthroned in a big tapestry chair, in which she unconsciously made a most delightful and colorful picture.
"I"m glad you like it. I have some trouble keeping it from getting cluttered up with "truck," as we call it. It"s about like Hercules trying to clean the Augean Stables, I think, but I try and use the den for an overflow, and only put the things I"m really fond of in here.
That helps some."
"They are certainly lovely," said the young freshman, looking wistfully at the head of "The Unknown Woman," between two bra.s.s candlesticks on the mantel shelf. On the bookshelves stood "The Winged Victory," and hanging over the shelves on the opposite side of the room was an immense photograph of Botticelli"s "Primavera." The only other pictures were two j.a.panese prints and the only other furniture was a baby grand piano and some chairs. It was really a delightfully empty and beautiful place, and Molly felt suddenly strangely crude and ignorant when she recalled the things she had intended to do to her part of the room at Queen"s Cottage toward beautifying it. She was engaged in mentally clearing them all out, when a voice at her elbow said:
"Are you thinking of taking the vows, Miss Brown?"
It was Judith Blount, who had drawn up a chair beside her"s. There was something very patronizing and superior in Miss Blount"s manner, but Molly was determined to ignore it, and smiled sweetly into the black eyes of the haughty soph.o.m.ore.
"Taking what vows?" she asked.
"Why, I understood you had become a cloistered nun."
Molly flushed. So the story was out. It didn"t take long for news to travel through a girl"s college.
"I wasn"t cloistered very long," she answered. "And the only vow I took was never to be caught there again after six o"clock."
"How did you like Epimenides? I hear he"s made a great joke of it," she continued, without waiting for Molly to answer. "He"s rather humorous, you know. Even in his most serious work, it will come out."
"I don"t think there was much to joke about," put in Molly, feeling a little indignant. "I was awfully forlorn and miserable."
"The real joke was that he called you "little Miss Smith,"" said Judith.
Molly"s moods reflected themselves in her eyes just as the pa.s.sing clouds are mirrored in two blue pools of water. A shadow pa.s.sed over her face now and her eyes grew darker, but she kept very quiet, which was her way when her feelings were hurt. Then Mary Stewart began to play on the piano, and Molly forgot all about the sharp-tongued soph.o.m.ore, who, she strongly suspected, was trying to be disagreeable, but for what reason for the life of her Molly could not see.
Never before had she heard any really good playing on the piano, and it seemed to her now that the music actually flowed from Mary"s long, strong fingers, in a melodious and liquid stream. Other music followed.
Judith sang a gypsy song, in a rich contralto voice, that Molly thought was a little coa.r.s.e. Jennie Wren, who could sing exactly like a child, gave a solo in the highest little piping soprano. Two girls played on mandolins, and Mary Stewart, who appeared to do most things, accompanied them on a guitar. Then came supper, which was rather plain, Molly thought, and consisted simply of tea and cookies. "I suppose it"s artistic not to have much to eat," her thoughts continued, but she made up her mind to invite Mary Stewart to supper before the old ham and the hickory nut cake were consumed by hungry freshmen.
"It seems to me that with such a voice as yours you must sing, Miss Brown," here broke in Mary Stewart. "Will you please oblige the company?"
"I wouldn"t like to sing after all this fine music," protested Molly.
"Besides, I don"t know anything but darky songs."
"The very girl we want for our Hallowe"en Vaudeville," cried Jennie Wren. "What do you use, a guitar or a piano?"
"Either, a little," answered Molly, blushing crimson; "but I haven"t any more voice than a rabbit."
"Fire away," cried Jennie Wren, thrusting a guitar into her hands.
Molly was actually trembling with fright when she found herself the center of interest in this musical company.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "I"m scared to death," she announced. Then she struck a chord and began.--_Page 60._]
"I"m scared to death," she announced, as she faintly tuned the guitar.
Then she struck a chord and began:
"Ma baby loves shortnin", Ma baby loves shortnin" bread; Ma baby loves shortnin", Mammy"s gwine make him some shortnin" bread."
Before she had finished, everybody in the room had joined in. Then she sang:
"Ole Uncle Rat has come to town, To buy his niece a weddin" gown, OO-hoo!"
"A quarter to ten," announced some one, and the next moment they had all said good-night and were running as fast as their feet could carry them across the campus, "scuttling in every direction like a lot of rats," as Judith remarked.
"Lights out at ten o"clock," whispered Nance breathlessly, as they crept into their room and undressed in the dark. It was very exciting. They felt like a pair of happy criminals who had just escaped the iron grasp of the law.
When Molly Brown dropped into a deep and restful sleep that night, she never dreamed that she had already become a noted person in college, though how it happened, it would be impossible to say. It might have been the Cloister story, but, nevertheless, Molly--overgrown child that she may have seemed to Professor Green--had a personality that attracted attention wherever she was.
CHAPTER V.