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At exactly the right moment Myrtle leaned forward, and clutched Leslie’s shoulder excitedly:
“O Leslie! That’s my cousin Fred Hicks! And that must be his friend, Bartram Laws! They’re out for a hike. How lucky! Stop a minute, please; I want to speak to my cousin.”
At the same moment the two young men turned, with a well-timed lifting of surprised hats in response to Myrtle’s violent waving and shouting.
Leslie of course slowed down. She could not carry a girl past her own cousin when she asked to stop to speak to him; besides, it never occurred to her not to do so.
Myrtle went through the introductions glibly.
“Mr. Laws, meet my friend Miss Cloud; my cousin, Fred Hicks, Leslie. Pile in, boys! Isn’t this great that we should meet? Out for a hike? We’ll give you a lift. Which way are you going? Fred, you can sit in front with Leslie. I want Bart back here with me.”
Leslie caught her breath in a troubled hesitancy. This wasn’t the kind of thing she had bargained for. It was the sort of thing that her aunt and brother would object to most strenuously. Yet how could she object when her guest had asked them? Of course Myrtle didn’t realize that it was not quite the thing for them to be off here in the country unchaperoned, with two strange young men, though of course they weren’t strangers really, both of them friends of Myrtle’s, and one her cousin. Myrtle could not be expected to think how it would seem to her.
But the young men were not waiting for Leslie’s invitation. They seemed to feel that their company246would be ample compensation for any objections that might be had. They scrambled in with alacrity.
The color flew into Leslie’s cheeks. In her heart she said they were altogether too “fresh.”
“Why, I suppose we can give you a lift for a little way,” said Leslie, trying to sound patronizing. “How far are you going? We turn off here pretty soon.”
“Oh, that’s all right,” said Cousin Fred easily; “any old road suits us so it’s going in this direction. Want me to take the wheel?”
“No, thank you,” said Leslie coldly, “I always drive myself. My brother doesn’t care for me to let other people use the car.”
“That’s all right; I thought you might be tired, and I’m a great driver. People trust me that won’t trust any one else.”
“That’s right, Leslie,” chimed in Myrtle. “Fred can drive like a breeze. You ought to see him!”
Leslie said nothing, but dropped in the clutch, and drove on. She was not prepossessed in Fred Hicks’s favor. She let him make all the remarks, and sat like a slim, straight, little offended goddess. But Fred Hicks was not disturbed in the least. He started in telling a story about a trip he took from Washington up to Harrisburg in an incredibly brief space of time, and he laughed uproariously at all his own jokes. Leslie was a girl of violent likes and dislikes, and she took one of them now. She fairly froze Cousin Fred, though he showed no outward sign of being aware of it.
“Here’s a nice road off to the right,” he indicated, reaching out a commanding hand to the wheel suddenly. “Turn here.”
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Leslie with set lips bore on past the suggested road at high speed.
“Please don’t touch my wheel,” was all she said, in a haughty little voice. She was very angry indeed.
They were nearing an old mansion, closed now for the winter, with a small artificial lake between the grounds and the highway.
Leslie felt a passing wish that she might dump her undesired cargo in that lake and fly away from them.
“I think you will have to get out at the next crossroads,” she said with more dignity. “I have to go home now.”
“Why, Leslie Cloud! You don’t any such thing!” broke in Myrtle. “You told me you could be out till quarter of six. It’s only half-past four! I thought you were a good sport.”
“I’ve changed my mind,” said Leslie coldly, bringing the car to a standstill. “I’m going back right now. Do you and your friend want to get out here, Mr. Hicks?”
Fred Hicks lolled back in the car, and leered at Leslie.
“Why, no, I can’t say I’m particularly anxious to get out, but I think I’d like to change around a little. If you’ll just step over here, I’ll run the car for you, my dear. I don’t think Myrtle is ready to go back yet. How ’bout it, Myrt?” He turned and deliberately winked at Myrtle, who leaned over with a light laugh, and patted Leslie on the shoulder.
“There, there, Leslie, don’t get up in the air,” she soothed, “I’ll explain all about it if you’ll just turn around and go up that road back there. It won’t take you much longer, and we’ll be back in plenty of248time. The fact is, I had a little plan in the back of my head when I came out this afternoon; and I want you to help me out. Now be a good girl and let Fred run the car a little while. He won’t do it any harm, and your brother will never know a thing about it.”
Leslie’s eyes were flashing, and her head was held haughtily; but she kept her hands firmly on the wheel.
“Your friends will have to get out, Myrtle,” she said coldly. “I can’t help you out in any scheme I don’t understand. You’ll have to go to some one else for that kind of help.”
Myrtle pouted.
“I must say I don’t think you’re very nice, Leslie Cloud, speaking in that way before my friends; but of course you don’t understand; I’ll have to tell you. Bart Laws and I are engaged, and we’re going to a town down in the next State to get married. Bart has the license and the minister, and it’s all arranged nicely. His aunt will be there for a chaperon. If you behave yourself and do as we tell you, the whole thing will go off quietly and no one will know the difference. You and I will go back home before dark, and everything will be lovely. You see, dear, I’ve been engaged all this time; only I couldn’t tell you, because my guardians don’t approve of my getting married until I’m through college. You didn’t understand why I had so much to do with Rich Price, but he was just a go-between for Bart and me. Now, do you understand why I wanted you to go this afternoon?”
Myrtle’s voice was very soft and insinuating. She had tears always near the surface for ready use. “You never have been in love, Leslie; you don’t know what it is to be separated from the one who is all the world249to you. Come, now, Leslie; I’ll do anything in the world for you if you’ll only help me out now.”
“And if I won’t?” asked Leslie calmly, deliberately, as if she were really weighing the question.
“Well, if you won’t,” put in the person called Fred Hicks, “why, Bart and I will just fix you up perfectly harmlessly in the back seat there, where you can’t do any damage”––and he put his hand in his pocket, and brought out the end of an ugly-looking rope––“and then we’ll take charge of this expedition and go on our way. You can take it or leave it as you please. Shut up there, Myrt; we haven’t any more time to waste. We’re behind schedule now.”
Leslie’s mouth shut in a pretty little tight line, and her eyes got like two blue sparks, but her voice was cool and steady.
“Well, Iwon’t!” she said tensely; and with a sudden motion she grabbed the switch-key and, springing to her feet, flung it far out across the road, across a little scuttled canoe that lay at the bank, and plunk into the water, before the other occupants of the car could realize what she was doing.
Fred Hicks saw just an instant too late, and sprang for her arm to stop it, then arose in his seat with curses on his lips, watching the exact location of the splash and calling to his mate to go out and fish for it.
Leslie sank back in her seat, tense and white, and both young men sprang out and rushed to the shore of the little lake, leaving a stream of unspeakable language behind them. Myrtle began to berate her friend.
“You littlefool!” she said. “You think you’ve stopped us, don’t you? But you’ll suffer for this! If you make us late, I’ll see that you don’t get back to250your blessed home for a whole week; and, when you do, you won’t have such a pretty reputation to go on as you have now! It won’t do a bit of good, either, for those two men can find that switch-key; or, if they can’t, Fred knows how to start a car without one. You’ve only made a lot of trouble for yourself, and that’s all the good it will do you. You thought you were smart, but you’re nothing but an ignorant little kid!”
But the ignorant little kid was not listening. With trembling fingers she was pulling off the wrappings from a small package, and suddenly a warning whir cut short Myrtle’s harangue. She lurched forward, and tried to pull Leslie’s hands away from the wheel.
“Bart! Come quick! She’s got another! Hurry, boys!”
251CHAPTER XXII
The two young men had shoved the old canoe up on the bank, turned it over, emptied it, and put it back in the water. Fred Hicks was holding it at arm’s length now in the water; and the would-be bridegroom had crawled out to the extreme end, and with rolled-up sleeves was pawing about in the water, which did not appear to be very deep. At the cry they turned; and Fred Hicks, forgetting the other man’s plight, let go the boat, and dashed back to the road. Young Laws, arising too hastily, rolled into the water completely, and came splashing up the bank in a frothy state of mind. But suddenly, as they came, while Myrtle’s best efforts were put forth to hinder Leslie’s movements, something cold and gleaming flashed in her face that sent her crouching back in the corner of her seat and screaming. Leslie had slipped her hand into the little secret pocket of the car door and brought out her revolver, hoping fervently that it was still loaded, and that Allison had not chosen to shoot at a mark or anything with it the last time he was out.
“You’d better sit down and keep quiet,” she said coolly. “I’m a good shot.”
Then she put her foot on the clutch, and the car started just as Fred Hicks lit on the running-board.
Leslie’s little revolver came promptly around to meet him, and he dropped away with a gasp of surprise as suddenly as he had lit. Suddenly Leslie became aware of the other young man dripping and breathless,252but with a dangerous look in his eye, bearing down upon her from the lake side of the road; and she flashed around and sent a shot ringing out into the road, the bullet ploughing into the dust at his very feet. The car leaped forward to obey her touch, and in a second more they had left the two young men safely behind them.
Myrtle was crouched in the back seat, weeping; and Leslie, cool and brave in the front seat, was trembling from head to foot. This was a new road to her; at least, she had never been more than two or three miles on it, and she did not know where she would bring up. She began to wonder how long her gasoline would hold out, for she had been in such a hurry to get away with Myrtle before Allison should come home that she had forgotten to look to see if everything was all right; and she now remembered that Allison had had the car out late the night before. Everything seemed to be falling in chaos about her. The earth rose and fell in front of her excited gaze; the sun was going down; and the road ahead seemed endless, without a turning as far as she could see.
A great burying-ground stretched for what seemed like miles along one side of the road. The polished marble gleamed red and bleak in the setting sun. The sky had suddenly gone lead-color, and there was a chill in the air. Leslie longed for nothing so much as to hide her head in Julia Cloud’s lap and weep. Yet she must go on and on and on till this awful road came to an end. Would itevercome to an end? Oh, itmustsomewhere! A great tower of bricks loomed ahead with a wide paved driveway leading to it through an arched gateway, and over the arch some words. Leslie253got only one of them, “CREMATORY.” She shuddered, and put on speed. It seemed that she had come to the place of death and desolation. It was lonely everywhere, and not a soul in sight. What horror if her gasoline should give out in a place like this, and they have to spend the night here, she and that poor, weak creature sobbing behind! What contempt she felt for her former friend! What contempt she felt for herself! Oh, she was well punished for her wilfulness! To think she should have presumed to hope she could help her to better ways, she, a little innocent, who never dreamed of such depths of duplicity as had been shown her that afternoon! Oh, to think of that loathsome Hicks person daring to touch her! To try to take her car away from her! and tosmileat her in that disgusting way!
On and on went the car, and the road wound away into the dusk up a high hill and down again, up another, past an old farmhouse with one dim light in the back window and a great dog howling like one in some old classic tale she had read; on and on, till at last a cross-road came, and she knew not which way to take, to right or to left. There was a sign-board; but it was too dark to read, and she dared not get out and leave Myrtle. There was no telling but she might try to run off with the car. It was at the crematory that she began to pray, and, when she reached the crossing, her heart put up a second plea for guidance. “O God, if You will just help me home, I will try,try,tryto be what You want me to be! Please, please,please!” It was the old vow of a heart bowed down and brought to the limit. It was the first time Leslie had ever realized that there could be a situation in254which Leslie Cloud would not find some way out. It was the first time, too, perhaps, when she realized herself as being a sinner in the sense of having a will against God and having exercised it for her own pleasure rather than for His glory.
Down the road to the left the car sped, and after a mile and a half of growing darkness, with woods and scattered farmhouses, the lights of a village began to appear. But it was no village that Leslie knew, and nothing anywhere gave her a clew. A trolley line appeared, however; and after a little a car came along with a name that showed it was going cityward. Leslie decided to follow the trolley track.
In the meantime the girl in the back seat roused up, and began to look about her, evidently recognizing something familiar in the streets or town.
“You can put me out here, Leslie; I’m done with you,” she said haughtily. “I don’t care to go any farther with you. I’ll go back on the train.”
“No!” said Leslie sharply. “You’ll go home with me. I took you away without knowing what you intended, but I mean to put you back where you were before I’m done. Then my responsibility for you will be over. I was a fool to let you deceive me that way, but I’m not a fool any longer.”
“Well, Iwon’tgo home with you, so! and that’s flat, Leslie Cloud. You needn’t think you can frighten me into going, either. We’re in a village now, and my aunt lives here. If you get out that revolver again, I’ll scream and have you arrested, and tell them you’re trying to murder me; so there!”
For answer Leslie turned sharply into a cross-road that led away from the settled portion of the town, and255put on all speed, tearing away into the dusk like a wild creature. Myrtle screamed and stormed behind her, all to no purpose. Leslie Cloud had her mettle up, and meant to take her prisoner home. Out of the town she turned into another road that ran parallel to the trolley track, from which she could see the lights of the trolleys passing now and again, as it grew darker; and by and by when they came to another cross-road, Leslie got back to the trolley track, and followed it; but whenever they came into a town she kept to its outskirts.
Leslie had a pretty good general sense of direction, and she knew just where the sun went down. If it had not been for a river and some hills that turned up and bewildered her, she would have made a pretty direct course home; but, as it was, she went far out of her way, and was long delayed and much distressed besides, being continually harassed by the angry girl in the back seat. The gasoline was holding out. It was evident that Allison had looked after it. Blessed Allison, who always did everything when he ought to do it, and never put off things until the next day! How cross she had been with him for the last six weeks, and how good and kind he always was to her! How she had deceived dear Cloudy and troubled her by going off this afternoon! Oh, what would they think? Would they ever forgive her, and take her back into their hearts, and trust her again? The tears were blurring her eyes now as she stared ahead at the road. It seemed as if she had been tearing on through the night for hours like this. Her arms ached with the nervous strain; her back ached; her head ached. Perhaps they were going around the world, and would only stop when the gasoline gave out!
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They swept around a curve. Could it be that those were the lights of the college ahead on the hill? Oh, joy at last! They were! Up this hill, over across two blocks, and the little pink-and-white house would be nestled among the hemlocks; and rest and home at last! But there was something to be done first. She turned toward the back seat, where sat her victim silent and angry.
“Well, you can let me out now, Leslie Cloud,” said Myrtle scornfully. “I suppose you won’t dare lord it over me any longer, and I’ll take good care that the rest of the town understands what a dangerous little spitfireyouare. You ought to be arrested for this night’s work! That’s allI’vegot to say.”
“Well, I have one more thing to say,” said Leslie slowly, as she swerved into her own street and her eyes hungrily sought for the lights of Cloudy Villa. “You’re coming into the house with me first, before you go anywhere else, and you’re going to tell this whole story to my Aunt Jewel. After that––I should worry!”
“Well, I rather guess I am not going into your old house and tell your old aunt anything! I’m going to get right out here this minute; and you’re good and going toletme out, too, or I’ll scream bloody murder, and tell it all over this town how you went out there to meet those boys. You haven’t got any witnesses, andI have, remember!” said Myrtle, suddenly feeling courageous now that she was back among familiar streets.
But Leslie turned sharply into the little drive, and brought up the car in a flood of light at the end of the terrace.
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“Now, get out!” she ordered, swinging the door open and flashing her little revolver about again at the angry girl.
“O Leslie!” pleaded the victim, quickly quelled by the sight of the cold steel, and thrilled with the memory of that shot whistling by her into the road a few hours before.
“Get out!” said Leslie coolly as the front door was flung open and Julia Cloud peered through the brightness of the porch light into the darkness.
“Get out!” Leslie held the cold steel nearer to Myrtle’s face, and the girl shuddered, and got out.
“Now go into the house!” she ordered; and shuddering, shivering, with a frightened glance behind her and a fearful glance ahead, she walked straight into the wondering, shocked presence of Julia Cloud, who threw the door open wide and stepped aside to let them in. Leslie, with the revolver still raised, and pointed toward the other girl, came close behind Myrtle, who sidled hastily around to get behind Miss Cloud.
“Why, Leslie! What is the matter?” gasped Julia Cloud.
“Tell her!” ordered Leslie, the revolver still pointed straight at Myrtle.
“What shall I tell?” gasped the other girl, turning a white, miserable face toward Miss Cloud as if to appeal to her leniency. But there was a severity in Julia Cloud’s face now after her long hours of anxiety that boded no good for the cause of all her alarm.
“Tell her the whole story!” ordered the fierce young voice of Leslie.
“Why, we went out to take a ride,” began Myrtle, looking up with her old braggadocio. There had seldom258been a time when Myrtle had not been able to get out of a situation by use of her wily tongue.
“Tell it all,” said Leslie, looking across the barrel of her weapon. “Tell who wanted to go on that ride.”
“Why, yes, I asked Leslie to take me. I––we––well, that is––I wanted to meet a friend.”
“Tell it straight!” ordered Leslie.
“Why, of course I didn’t tell Leslie I expected to meet them––him. I wasn’t just sure he could make the arrangements. I meant to tell her when we got out. And when we met him––and my cousin––it was my cousin I was to meet––you see I’m––we––he–––”
Myrtle was getting all tangled up with her glib tongue under the clear gaze of Julia Cloud’s truth-compelling eyes. She looked up and down, and twisted the fringe on her sash, and turned red and white by turns, and seemed for the first time a very young, very silly child. But Leslie had suffered, and just now Leslie had no mercy. This girl had been a kind of idol to whom she had sacrificed much, and now that her idol had fallen she wanted to make the idol pay. Or no, was that it? Leslie afterwards searched her heart, and felt that she could truly say that her strongest motive in compelling this confession had been to get the burden of the knowledge of it off her own shrinking soul.
“Tell the rest!” came the relentless voice of Leslie, and Myrtle struggled on.
“Well, I’m engaged to Mr. Bartram Laws; and my guardian won’t let us get married till I’m through college, and we fixed it up to get married to-day quietly. I knew it would be all right after he found out he couldn’t help himself, and so–––”
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“Tell how you asked the boys to get in the car!” ordered the fierce voice again; and Myrtle, recalled from another attempt to pass it all off pleasantly, went step by step through the whole shameful story until it was complete.
Then Leslie with a sudden motion of finality flung the little weapon down upon the mahogany table, and dashed into Julia Cloud’s arms in a storm of tears. “O Cloudy, I’ll never, never do any such thing again! And I hate her! Ihateher! I’ll never forgive her! Can you ever forgiveme?”
No one had heard a sudden, startled exclamation from the porch room as Leslie and Myrtle came into the house; but now Myrtle suddenly looked up, thinking the time had come for her to steal away unseen; and there in the two doorways that opened on either side of the fireplace stood, on one side Allison Cloud and the dean of the college, and on the other side two members of the student executive body, all looking straight at her! Moreover, she read it in their eyes that they had heard every word of her confession. Without a word she dropped white and stricken into a chair, and covered her face with her hands. For once her brazen wiles were gone.
260CHAPTER XXIII
It happened that Miss Myrtle Villers had not confined her affections to Mr. Bartram Laws. She had been seen wandering about the campus with other youths at odd hours of the evening when young-lady students were supposed to be safely within college halls or properly chaperoned at some public gathering. The “student exec” had had her in tow for several weeks, and she had already received a number of reproofs and warnings. A daring escapade the evening before had brought matters to a head, and it was very possibly because of some suspicion that they might have found her out that Myrtle had made her plans to be absent on that afternoon. However that was, when the executive body in consultation with the dean sent for her, they traced her to the Clouds’ house. At least, they came there about seven o’clock to inquire and hoping to take her unaware. They had found Allison in a great state of excitement, telephoning hither and yon to try to get some clew to his sister’s whereabouts. They had remained to advise and suggest, greatly worried at the whole situation, the more so because it involved Leslie Cloud, whose bright presence had taken great hold upon everybody.
And now, without knowing it, Leslie Cloud had taken the one way to put the whole matter into the right hands and to exonerate herself. If she had known that any member of the faculty was in that room listening, if she had dreamed that even her brother was there, she would not have thought it right or honorable261to put even an enemy in such a position, either for her own sake or for the girl’s. She had only wanted some wise, true adviser to know the truth, so that the girl might learn what was right and have the responsibility taken from her own shoulders. She thought, too, that she had a right to be exonerated before her aunt. So now, while she wept out her contrition in Julia Cloud’s arms, retribution was coming swiftly to Myrtle Villers; and her career in that college was sealed with finality. It was only too plain that such a girl was a menace to the other students, and needed to be removed.
Presently Leslie, feeling something strange in the atmosphere, lifted frightened, tear-filled eyes, and saw the grave faces of the dean and his companions! She held her breath with suspense. How terrible! How public and unseemly! She had brought all this upon herself and her family by her persistent friendship with this silly girl! And she fell to trembling and shuddering, all her fine, sweet nerve gone now that the strain was over.
Julia Cloud drew her down upon the couch, and soothed her, covering her with an afghan and trying to comfort her. Then the dean stepped over to the couch and spoke to Leslie.
“Miss Cloud, you must not feel so bad,” he said gently, as if she had been his own child. “You have acted nobly, and no one will blame you. You have perhaps saved Miss Villers from great shame and sorrow, and you certainly have been brave and true. Don’t worry, child,” and he patted Leslie’s heaving shoulder kindly.
Presently the dean and his committee were gone, taking the cowering Myrtle with them, and Leslie lay262snuggled up on the couch, with Allison building up the fire and Cherry bringing a tray with a nice supper. Julia Cloud fixed a hot-water bag to warm the chilled hands and feet. It was so good to be at home! The tears rushed into her eyes again, and her throat filled with sobs.
“O Cloudy!” She caught her aunt’s hands. “I’ll never, never do anything again you don’t want me to!” she sobbed out, and then burst into another paroxysm of tears.
“There! Now, kid! Don’t cry any more!” pleaded Allison, springing to her side and kneeling by her, smoothing her hair roughly. “You were a little winner! You had every bit of your nerve with you. Why, you did a great thing, kid! Outwitting those two brutes and bringing that girl back in spite of herself. But the greatest thing of all was your making her confess. Now they’ve got something to go on. If you hadn’t done that, it would have been her word against yours; and I imagine she’s always managed to keep things where she could get around people with her wiles. Now she’s got to face facts; and believe me, kid, it’ll be better for her in the end. She was headed straight for a bad end, and no mistake. All the fellows knew it, and the faculty suspected it; and it was making no end of trouble. But now the girl may be saved, for that dean never lets a student go to destruction, they say, if he can help it. Oh, of course he’ll fire her. She isn’t fit to be around here. But he’ll keep an eye on her, and he’ll fire her in such a way that she’ll have another chance to make good if she’s willing to take it. Don’t you worry about spoiling her life. She’d set out to spoil it in the first place, and the best thing that could263possibly happen to her was to get stopped before she went too far. From all you say I shouldn’t think a marriage with that fellow would have been any advantage to her.”
“Oh, he wasawful, Allison!” shuddered Leslie. “He smelled of liquor; and he had great, coarse lips and eyes; and he put his arms around her, and kissed her right there before us all; and they acted perfectly disgusting! I’m almost sure from things I heard them say that she hadn’t been engaged to him at all, she hadn’t even known him till last week. She met him in town––just picked him up on the street! And that Fred Hicks! I don’tbelievenow he was her cousin at all.”
“Probably not. But leave that all to the dean. He’ll ferret it out. He went in there to the telephone before he left, and from what I heard I imagine he’s got detectives out after those two guys, and they may sleep in the lockup to-night. They certainly deserve to. And I shall have a hand in settling with them, too. I can’t have my sister treated that way and let it go easily. They’ve got to answer to me. There, kid!”
He stooped down, and kissed her gently on her hot, wet forehead; and Leslie caught his hand and nestled her own in it.
“O Allison! It’s so good to be home!” she murmured, squeezing his hand appreciatively. “I’ll never, never,nevergo with a girl again that you don’t like. I’m just going to stick to Jane. She’s the only one up there I really love, anyway.”
Allison seemed quite satisfied with these sentiments, and they had a beautiful time eating their supper before the fire, for no one had had any appetite before; and264Cherry was as pleased to have the anxiety over and wait upon them all as if Leslie had been her own sister.
Into the midst of their little family group broke a hurried, excited knock on the door, and there stood Howard Letchworth with anxious face.
“I heard that your sister and one of the college girls had gone off in a car and got lost. Is it true? I came right around to see if I could help.”
Leslie sat up with her teary eyes bright and eager, and her cheeks rosy with pleasure, all her pretty hair in a tumble about her face and the firelight playing over her features in a most charming way.
“Oh, it’s awfully good of you,” she called eagerly. “But I’m perfectly all right and safe.”
He came over to the couch, and took her offered hand most eagerly, expressing his delight, and saying he had been almost sure it was some town gossip, but he could not rest satisfied until he was positive.
But Allison would not let it go at that.
“I’m going to tell him, Leslie,” he said. “He won’t let any one be the wiser; and, if people are saying anything like that, he can help stop their mouths.” So Allison told the whole story. When it came to the part about Fred Hicks and Bartram Laws, Howard’s face grew dark, and he flashed a look that boded no good to the two young ruffians.
“I know who that Laws fellow is,” he said gravely. “He’s rotten! And I shouldn’t wonder if I could locate his friend. I get around quite a bit on my motor-cycle. May I use your ’phone a minute? I have a friend who is a detective. They ought to be rounded up. Miss Leslie, would you tell me carefully just what roads you took, as nearly as you know?”
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So Leslie told in detail of the wild ride once more. Julia Cloud watched the young man’s face as he listened, and knew that Leslie had a faithful friend and champion, knew also that here was one whose friendship was well worth cultivating, a clean, fine, strong young soul, and was glad for her little girl. Something stirred in her memory as she watched his look, and she went back to her childish days and the boy friend who had kissed her when he went away never to return. There was the same look in Howard Letchworth’s eyes when he looked at Leslie, the age-old beauty of a man’s clean devotion to a sweet, pure woman soul.
Of course Leslie was a mere child yet, and was not thinking of such things; but there need be no fear that that fine, strong young man would be unwise enough to let the child in her be frightened away prematurely. They were friends now, beautiful friends; and that would be enough for them both for a long time. She was content.
She watched them all the evening, and listened to their talk about the Christian Endeavor Society. How beautiful it was that Leslie had been able to bring the boy to a degree of interest in that! Of course it was for her sake, but he was man enough to be interested on his own account now; and from their talk she could see that he had gone heart and soul with Allison into the plans for the winter work. He had a fine voice, and was to sing a solo at the next meeting. Presently Leslie so far recovered her nerves as to smooth out her hair and go to the piano to practise with him.
“O Jesus, Thou art standingOutside the fast-closed door,”
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rang out the rich, sweet notes; and the tender, sympathetic voice brought out each word with an appeal. The boy could not sing like that and not feel it himself sometime. Julia Cloud found herself praying; praying, as if she whispered to a dear Companion sitting close beside her at the hearthside: “Dear Christ, show this boy. Teach him what Thou art. Make him Thy true disciple.”
Suddenly the young fellow turned to Allison with a smile.
“I like the way you take your religion with you into college, Cloud. It makes it seem real. I haven’t met many fellows that had any before, or perhaps I shouldn’t have been such a heathen as I am. But I say, why don’t you try to get some of your frat brothers to come down to the meeting? They ought to be willing to do that for you, and it would be great to have them sing. You’ve got a lot of the glee club in your crowd.”
“That’s so!” said Allison. “I don’t know but I’ll try it. I’d like to have them come the night you sing. Guess I’ll have to hunt around and get a speaker. No, I won’t either. Just the meeting itself is good enough now for anybody. They’re a pretty good little bunch down there. They’ve been working like beavers. Jane Bristol gets the girls together, and coaches them for every meeting. She’s some girl, do you know it?”
Howard Letchworth agreed that she was, but he cast a side glance down at the bright head of the girl, who was playing his accompaniment as if he felt there were others. Julia Cloud was watching her darling girl, wondering, hoping, praying that she might always stay so sweet and unspoiled.
267
But when the young man was gone home, and Leslie came back to the couch again, she suddenly drooped.
“Cloudy Jewel,” she said wearily, “it isn’t right. I don’t deserve people to be so nice to me, the dean, and you all, and Howard and everybody. It was a lot my fault that all this happened. I thought I could make that girl over if I just stuck to her. She had promised me she would come to Christian Endeavor, and join; and I wanted to show you all what a power I had over her. I was just conceited; that was all there was about it. Now I see that she was only fooling me. I couldn’t have done anything at all alone. I needed God. I didn’t ask Him to help. You’ve talked a lot about that in our Sunday meetings, but it never went down into my heart until I was driving past that old crematory, and I felt as if I was all alone and Death all in black trailing robes was going along fast beside me. Then I knew God was the only one who could help, and I began to pray. I hope maybe I’ve learned my lesson, and I’ll not be so swelled-headed next time. But you oughtn’t to forgive me, Cloudy, not so easy. Cloudy, you’re just like God!”
It was several days before Leslie recovered fully from the nervous strain she had been under. She slept long the next day, and Julia Cloud would not waken her. For a week there were dark circles under the bright eyes, and the rose of her cheek was pale. She went about meekly with downcast eyes, and the bright fervor of her spirit seemed dimmed. It was not until one afternoon when Allison suggested that they get Jane Bristol and Howard Letchworth and go for bittersweet-berry vines and hemlock-branches to268decorate for the Christian Endeavor social that her spirits seemed to return, and the unwholesome experience was put away in the past at last.
Howard Letchworth had been most thoughtful about the matter in the village, and had managed so that the tragic had been taken out of the story that had started to roll about, and Leslie could go around and not feel that all eyes were upon her wondering about her escapade. Gradually the remembrance of it died out of her thoughts, although the wholesome lesson she had learned never faded.
More and more popular in the college grew the gatherings down at Cloudy Villa. Sometimes Leslie brought home three or four girls for Friday and Saturday, not often any on Sunday, unless it was Jane; for Sundays were their very own day for the little family, and they dreaded any who might seem like intruders.
“It is our time when we catch up in our loving for all the week,” Leslie explained with a quaint smile to one girl who broadly hinted that she would not mind being asked for over Sunday. “And, besides, you mightn’t like the way we keep Sunday. Everybody who comes has to go to church and Christian Endeavor with us, and enjoy our Bible-reading, singing hour around the fire; and I didn’t think you would.”
“Well, I like your nerve!” answered the girl; but she sat studying Leslie afterwards with a thoughtful gaze, and began to wonder whether, after all, a Sunday spent in that way might not be really interesting.
“She’s a kind of a nut, isn’t she?” she remarked to another friend of Leslie’s.
“She’s a pretty nice kind of a nut, then, Esther,”269was the response. “If that’s a nut, we better grow a whole tree of them. I’m going down there all I can. I like ’em!”
Julia Cloud seemed to have a fertile brain for all kinds of lovely ways to while away a holiday. As the cold weather came on, winter picnics became the glory of the hour. Long walks with heavy shoes and warm sweaters and mittens were inaugurated. A kettle of hot soup straight from the fire, wrapped in a blanket and carried in a big basket, was a feature of the lunch. When the party reached a camping-spot, a fire would be built and the soup-kettle hung over an improvised crane to put on its finishing touches, while the rest of the eatables were set forth in paper plates, each portion neatly wrapped in waxed paper ready for easy handling. Sometimes big mince pies came along, and were stood on edge near the fire to get thawed out. Bean soup, corned-beef sandwiches, and hot mince pie made a hearty meal for people who had tramped ten or fifteen miles since breakfast.
Oh, how those college-fed boys and girls enjoyed these picnics, with Julia Cloud as a kind of hovering angel to minister with word or smile or in some more practical way, wherever there was need! They all called her “Cloudy Jewel” now whenever they dared, and envied those who got closest to her and told her their troubles. Many a lad or lassie brought her his or her perplexities; and often as they sat around the winter camp, perhaps on a rock brushed free from snow, she gave them sage advice wrapped up in pleasant stories that were brought in ever so incidentally. There was nothing ever like preaching about Julia Cloud; she did not feel that she knew enough to preach.270And sometimes, as they walked homeward through the twilight of a long, happy afternoon, and the streaks of crimson were beginning to glow in the gray of the horizon, some one or two would lag behind and ask her deep, sweet questions about life and its meaning and its hereafter. Often they showed her their hearts as they had never shown them even to their own people, and often a word with her sent some student back to work harder and fight stronger against some subtle temptation. She became a wholesome antidote to the spirit of doubt and atheism that had crept stealthily into the college and was attacking so many and undermining what little faith in religion they had when they came there.
It came to be a great delight to many of the young college people to spend an evening around the hearth at Cloudy Villa. There never had been any trouble about that question of dancing, because they just did not do it; and there was always something else going on, some lively games, sometimes almost a “rough-house,” as the boys called it, but never anything really unpleasant. Julia Cloud was “a good sport,” the boys said; and the girls delighted in her. The evenings were filled with impromptu programmes thought out carefully by Julia Cloud, but proposed and exploited in the most casual manner.
“Allison, why wouldn’t it be a good idea for you to act out that story we were reading the other day the next time you have some of the young people down? You and Leslie and Jane with the help of one or two others could do it, and there wouldn’t be much to learn. If you all read it over once or twice more, you’d have it so you could easily extemporize. Do you know, I271think there’s a hidden lesson in that story that would do some of those boys and girls good if they could see it lived out, and perhaps set them to reading the book?”
Again they would be asked suddenly, soon after their arrival, each one to represent his favorite character in Shakespeare, or to reproduce some great public man so that they all could recognize him; and they would be sent up-stairs to select from a great pile of shawls, wraps, and all sorts of garments any which they needed for an improvised costume.
Another evening there would be brought forth a new game which nobody had seen, and which absorbed them all for perhaps two hours until some delicious and unique refreshments would be produced to conclude the festivities. At another time the round dining-table would be stretched to take in all its leaves, and the entire company would gather around it with uplifted thumbs and eager faces unroariously playing “up Jenkins” for an hour or two. Any little old game went well under that roof, though Julia Cloud kept a controlling mind on things, and always managed to change the game before anybody was weary of it.
Also there was much music in the little house. Allison played the violin well; two or three others who played a little at stringed and wind instruments were discovered; and often the whole company would break loose into song until people on the street halted and walked back and forth in front of the house to listen to the wild, sweet harmonies of the fresh young voices.
At the close of such an evening it was not an uncommon happening for a crowd of the frat boys to gather in a knot in front of the house and give the college yell, with a tiger at the end, and then272“CLOUD! CLOUD! CLOUD!” The people living on that street got used to it, and opened their windows to listen, with eyes tender and thoughtful as they pondered on how easily this little family had caught the hearts of those college people, and were helping them to have a good time. Perhaps it entered into their minds that other people might do the same thing if they would only half try.
In return for all her kindness a number of the young people would often respond to Julia Cloud’s wistful invitation to go to church, and more and more they were being drawn by twos and threes to come to the Christian Endeavor meetings in the village. It seemed as if they had but just discovered that there was such a thing, to the equal amazement of themselves and the original members of the Christian Endeavor Society, who had always responded to any such suggestions on the part of their pastor or elders with a hopeless “Oh, you can’t get those college guys to do anything! They think they’re it!” The feeling was gradually melting away, and a new brotherhood and sisterhood was springing up between them. It was not infrequent now for a college maiden to greet some village girl with a frank, pleasant smile, and accept invitations to lunch and dinner. And college boys were friendly and chummy with the village boys who were not fellow-students, and often took them up to their frat rooms to visit. So the two elements of the locality were coming nearer to each other, and their bond was the village Christian Endeavor Society.
So passed the first winter and spring in the little pink-and-white house. And with the first week of vacation there came visitors.