"Just listen to this!" cried Louisa, and she read,--
"Thou may"st forget me, but never, never shall I forget thee!"
Alphonso of Castile.
The Escurial, April 1st.
"Who"s he?" asked a circle of awe-struck girls.
"Didn"t you ever hear of him? Youngest brother of the King of Spain,"
replied Rose carelessly.
"Oh, my! and just hear this," exclaimed Annie Silsbie.
If you ever deign to cast a thought in my direction, Miss Rose, remember me always as Thy devoted servitor, Potemkin Montmorency.
St. Petersburg, July 10th.
"And this," shrieked Alice White.
"They say love is a thorn, I say it is a dart, And yet I cannot tear thee from my heart."
Antonio, Count of Vallambrosa.
"Do you really and truly know a Count?" asked Bella, backing away from Rose with eyes as big as saucers.
"Know Antonio de Vallambrosa! I should think I did," replied Rose.
"n.o.body in this country knows him so well, I fancy."
"And he wrote that for you?"
"How else could it get into my book, goosey?"
This was unanswerable; and Rose was installed from that time forward in the minds of Bella and the rest as a heroine of the first water.
Katy, however, knew better; and the first time she caught Rose alone she attacked her on the subject.
"Now, Rosy-Posy, confess. Who wrote all those absurd autographs in your book?"
"Absurd autographs! What can you mean?"
"All those Counts and things. No, it"s no use. You shan"t wriggle away till you tell me."
"Oh, Antonio and dear Potemkin, do you mean them?"
"Yes, of course I do."
"And you really want to know?"
"Yes."
"And will swear not to tell?"
"Yes."
"Well, then," bursting into a laugh, "I wrote every one of them myself."
"Did you really? When?"
"Day before yesterday. I thought Lilly needed taking down, she was so set up with her autographs of Wendell Phillips and Mr. Seward, so I just sat down and wrote a book full. It only took me half an hour.
I meant to write some more: in fact, I had one all ready,--
"I am dead, or pretty near: David"s done for me I fear"
Goliath of Gath.
but I was afraid even Bella wouldn"t swallow that, so I tore out the page. I"m sorry I did now, for I really think the geese would have believed it. Written in his last moments, you know, to oblige an ancestor of my own," added Rose, in a tone of explanation.
"You monkey!" cried Katy, highly diverted. But she kept Rose"s counsel, and I daresay some of the Hillsover girls believe in that wonderful alb.u.m to this day.
It was not long after that a sad piece of news came for Bella. Her father was dead. Their home was in Iowa, too far to allow of her returning for the funeral; so the poor little girl stayed at school, to bear her trouble as best she might. Katy, who was always kind to children, and had somewhat affected Bella from the first on account of her resemblance to Elsie in height and figure, was especially tender to her now, which Bella repaid with the gift of her whole queer little heart. Her affectionate demonstrations were rather of the monkey order, and not un frequently troublesome; but Katy was never otherwise than patient and gentle with her, though Rose, and even Clover, remonstrated on what they called this "singular intimacy."
"Poor little soul! It"s so hard for her, and she"s only eleven years old," she told them.
"She has such a funny way of looking at you sometimes," said Rose, who was very observant. "It is just the air of a squirrel who has hidden a nut, and doesn"t want you to find out where, and yet can hardly help indicating it with his paw. She"s got something on her mind, I"m sure."
"Half a dozen things, very likely," added Clover: "she"s such a mischief."
But none of them guessed what this "something" was.
Early in January Mrs. Nipson announced that in four weeks she proposed to give a "Soiree," to which all young ladies whose records were entirely free from marks during the intervening period would be allowed to come. This announcement created great excitement, and the school set itself to be good; but marks were easy to get, and gradually one girl after another lost her chance, till by the appointed day only a limited party descended to join the festivities, and nearly half the school was left upstairs to sigh over past sins.
Katy and Rose were among the unlucky ones. Rose had incurred a mark by writing a note in study-hour, and Katy by being five minutes late to dinner. They consoled themselves by dressing Clover"s hair, and making her look as pretty as possible, and then stationed themselves in the upper hall at the head of the stairs to watch her career, and get as much fun out of the occasion as they could.
Pretty soon they saw Clover below on Professor Seccomb"s arm. He was a kingly, pleasant man, with a bald head, and it was a fashion among the girls to admire him.
"Doesn"t she look pretty?" said Rose. "Just notice Mrs. Searles, Katy.
She"s grinning at Clover like the Cheshire cat. What a wonderful cap that is of hers! She had it when Sylvia was here at school, eight years ago."
"Hush! she"ll hear you."
"No, she won"t. There"s Ellen beginning her piece. I know she"s frightened by the way she plays. Hark! how she hurries the time!"
"There, they are going to have refreshments, after all!" cried Esther Dearborn, as trays of lemonade and cake-baskets appeared below on their way to the parlor. "Isn"t it a shame to have to stay up here?"
"Professor Seccomb! Professor!" called Rose, in a daring whisper.
"Take pity upon us. We are starving for a piece of cake."