CHAPTER XI: HALLOWE'EN SURPRISES
It was Hallowe'en, so much more thrilling in the city than in the smallplace which Betty Lee formerly called home. In the different suburbs,like villages themselves, children were already appearing on the streetin costumes and masks, although it was scarcely dark. Many of themcarried baskets, for in gypsy fashion, perhaps, they were accustomed toreceive contributions from the persons whose bells they rang.
Mrs. Lee did not like the custom and would not allow Dick or Doris to"beg," as she called it. "Have all the fun you want in costume," shesaid, "but don't ask for charity!" Mr. Lee made no mention of the factthat he intended to trail the children a little to see that they werenot carried away by the freedom of the night, but he told his wife thatPoliceman Leary would be "on the job" and that he was an easy-going soulwhen children were concerned. Mrs. Lee was not so sure that easy-goingwould do on Hallowe'en, but her husband explained. "He will not standfor any destruction of property, particularly in this neighborhood, buthe's not likely to arrest children or be hard on them."
From the standpoint of Dick, Doris and Betty, everything was lovely.Even little Amy Lou was permitted to dress up and as she made anadorable little gypsy, with a fetching mask balanced on her small nose,Doris was rather proud to lead her forth. "We'll bring you right back ifyou get fussy, though," warned Dick, "and I have to go with the boyspretty soon."
"Oh, Dickie, I won't fuss, honest! And Dorry will take care of me, won'tyou Dorry?"
"Yes, for a while, anyhow, as long as you ought to stay out. I wish youwere going to be at home, Betty!"
"I don't," frankly replied Betty, who was in front of the mirror seeinghow she looked in the small black mask, from whose openings her eyestwinkled. "But you will have lots of fun, and if you give Amy Lou agrand little outing, she'll be angelic when she comes in; for Mother'sgoing to have a little Hallowe'en party for her, all by herself, with agreat surprise!"
As Betty spoke, she looked down at the tiny gypsy, very solemn andimportant now. Amy Lou smiled up, however, with a smile much like thatwith which her older sister was regarding her. "Give me a name, Betty!Give me a name!" she demanded, "a gypsy name!"
"Oh, you're the Queen of the gypsies, the Princess Maria SophiaCleopatra Amy Lou."
"All right," shouted Amy Lou, running out of the bedroom to followDoris, who was ready to start.
Betty's costume was not one as hastily fabricated as those of the otherchildren for her mother, realizing that she was to mingle with otherboys and girls who would be well costumed, had gone to considerabletrouble to make her "little girl" pretty. Betty was Titania of thefairies and was airily dressed in white with "spangles" appropriatelyattached, Roman pearls around her young neck, several tinkling braceletson her arms and a few tiny silver bells so disposed that they sounded alittle as she walked. And now her mother brought a warm wrap for hershoulders and the long, shrouding domino that she was to wear over all.What fun!
There followed the ride to the party in Mr. Lee's car and a merrygood-bye to him as she joined the company of shrouded figures or funnilycostumed ones that were descending from automobiles, or entering thegates, or being ushered in at the door of the house. My, it was going tobe a large party, but Marcella had told her at school that she haddecided not to have it confined to juniors at all. "I owe such a lot ofthe girls, and so I'm going to have--everybody!"
It was not quite that, to be sure, but the upstairs rooms were fullwhere wraps were being laid aside. How funny not to know a soul to speakto! But Carolyn had told her what her costume would be and she hadconfided what hers would be. Perhaps Carolyn knew about some of theothers.
"Oh, aren't you sweet!" squealed somebody in a high, assumed voice."Look, girls, here's the queen of the fairies. Now, who is she? Gilthair, cute chin and a dimple or two!"
Betty laughed at the description. So she had gilt hair, had she? Thathair had been arranged as she never wore it before. She did hope thatshe wouldn't be found out right away; yet this girl was a tall one andnobody she knew, she imagined. But she picked up her fairy wand, laidaside while she removed her wraps, and waved it regally toward thespeaker. She, too, tried to disguise her voice as she said, "The fairyqueen bestows honors and gifts for tonight!"
At that a slim little person in a gay gypsy costume ran up, holding outher palm. "Cross my palm with a nickel, Titania, and I'll tell you afortune, for even the fairies don't know everything!"
The gypsy's voice was pitched low and rang a little hollow; but surelyBetty knew that hand and arm, all covered with rings, beads andglittering gold or brass! "Oh, it's you, Gypsy, isn't it?" she whisperedin the gypsy's ear. "I might know that you would be a real gypsytonight! You look darling!"
"Then I didn't fool you a little bit! I hope I have better luck withother people. Was it my voice?"
"No, your hand, Gypsy. And did you know me right off?"
"No, honey, not till you said 'Gypsy' just now. Nobody else calls methat much--yet."
"Yet is a good word, Kathryn. After tonight you may be called that more.Let's go around together, then, the Gypsy Queen and the Fairy Queen,that is, I'm _supposed_ to be it."
Together Kathryn Allen and Betty Lee descended the stairs where theirfeet sank into a soft carpet. Below, on either side of the hall, largerooms stretched out, opening in to the hall with its pillars anddraperies. "What a lovely home," said Betty.
"Yes, isn't it. I've never been here before. And aren't the Hallowe'endecorations cute?"
Arm in arm the girls entered at the right, where a sort of receivingline seemed to be. And there was Marcella, without her mask, yet coveredwith a domino which concealed her costume. "Hello, girls," she greetedthem. "I'm sorry not to be able to speak your names, but I think youneed no introduction for I can guess what you are without any trouble.Titania, greetings. By what name shall I call your friend?"
"Allow me to present the Gypsy Queen, Miss Waite," said Betty with mockformality.
"Happy to meet you. Titania, let me introduce the Sultan of Turkey andthe Pirate of Penzance."
Two tall lads stood just beyond Marcella. Betty shook hands with arichly dressed "Sultan" and a wildly equipped pirate, who looked veryhandsome and bent over Betty's hand like some cavalier of old. Bettywondered if these boys were guests or just on a sort of receivingcommittee. If the pirate were one of the boys in school, he must be asenior or one of the older junior boys she was sure.
Two boys, who had been chatting with some others, turned back to beintroduced to Betty and Kathryn by the pirate and Betty understood thatthey, too, properly belonged in the receiving line. All were maskedexcept Marcella, who wanted to meet her guests in her proper person.
"The thing to do next," said one of the girls, "is to go through themain rooms, see the decorations, visit the tent and have your fortunetold, go and bob for apples or do some of the other stunts, whatever youcan get in before the masked dancing begins. We're going to have theold-fashioned square dances just as soon as everybody is here. But ofcourse, you're to talk to the other girls and boys and try to find outwho they are--oh, you'll see what to do. Marcella has somebody to tellyou."
Kathryn and Betty, however, did not feel like fortunes yet. They lookedall around for Carolyn, who evidently had not arrived, and had anamusing conversation with a rollicking clown, who turned out to be, sothey thought, Chet Dorrance; but he would not acknowledge it whenKathryn said that she "guessed it was Chet." Betty hoped that Ted wasthere among some of the tall figures. He probably knew Marcella.
"It's a good thing we've been having the funny old dances in 'gym,'isn't it?" asked Kathryn. "Do you suppose the boys know 'em?"
"They can learn. I imagine we'll all be told what to do. Besides, nobodyhas to dance that doesn't want to."
Carolyn came and found the girls, though she was claimed almostimmediately by another clown, very spotty as to his ruffled and bulgingsuit and wearing at first a mask which covered his entire face, but thatproved too hot. He had an ordinary mask in his pocket, he told
Carolyn,who encouraged him to put it on. "Get into a corner and whisk off thathot mask," she advised. "I'll turn my back to you and hand you thelittle one."
"You won't give me away if you happen to see?"
"Of course not. I will _keep your secret_ till we unmask!" she added, inlofty tones, then giggled.
Meantime, Betty decided that she would have her fortune told. Kathrynsaid that she would do it, too, and see what the other gypsy lookedlike.
The tent was a flimsy affair, as one put up in a drawing room wouldnecessarily be. The fortune-teller was one of the older girls, who didit very cleverly. Her costume was not like Kathryn's, but very gay withsashes and ribbons, beads and jewelry of all sorts. Her long earringsglittered and the wide gold bracelets that she wore jingled as they werestruck by other loose narrow ones.
"I see that you will have to make a great choice," she said to Betty, asBetty stretched forth her capable little hand and the gypsy pored overit, or looked at as much of Betty's face as she could see.
"You have gifts. You might have a career. You are musical and there aresome practical lines in your hand, too. Your life line is good--yes, Isee a long life for you. You are rather creative."
"What is the great choice?" asked Betty.
"Oh, yes. It's the usual choice between marriage and a career."
"Couldn't I have both?"
"It doesn't work," laughed the gypsy, forgetting her pose. "I mean tosay that you may have several serious love affairs and you may choose tomarry. When you take your mirror tonight and your candle and look in themirror, repeat this charm; for it will drive away the goblins andwitches and other evil spirits and you may really see the one you are tolove best!"
The gypsy handed Betty a piece of paper, cut from a gay Hallowe'en stripof some sort. It was folded and the gypsy warned her not to open ituntil just before she "performed the fatal rite."
"It will lose its power if you do," said she. "No, friend gypsy, let mesee what the fates have for you. Oh, yes. That's a nice hand, goodlines, some mentality, not too much, some gifts; you will marry andthere will be several, one, two, three children, a long life--but bewarea dark woman who will try to come between you and the man you love!"
"She isn't so good," laughed Kathryn after she and Betty left the tent,"but she was jolly all right. If it is a dark woman, it can't be you,Betty, so we'll remain friends, I see."
"I suppose there's some arrangements for the mirror stunt," said Betty."Oh, there's the music--let's see where it is. Why, Gypsy, Marcella hasa real orchestra--or a number of the pieces anyhow. Listen! They'retuning up!"
The fun of the old-fashioned dances began. The Pirate of Penzance madestraight for Betty, who wondered more than ever who he could be. He wasevidently speaking in his natural voice, but she had never heard itbefore, at least it was not at all familiar. Marcella must know him verywell, Betty thought, for she noticed a private confab between the two.
Her pirate was very graceful, she thought, and his costume, with itsdark red and dark blue, and gay sash with its array of knives, was agood one. The knives he laid aside for the dances, but assumed themagain when it was announced that the company would now proceed to thebasement where witches and goblins were holding their annual frolic. "Bevery careful," announced the Pirate of Penzance, "and the witches willbe friendly."
Down the stairs to the large basement with its concrete floor, trippedthe company. Except for the part devoted to the furnaces, the place wasdecorated and the only light came from large pumpkins, amusingly cut andcontaining the customary candles. A hollow-voiced witch in a long blackrobe stood at the door and odd little goblins and black cats and otherappropriate Hallowe'en figures hung from the low ceiling of the cellars.
Betty had not seen the place to bob for apples, mentioned by the girl ofthe receiving line, but here she found it, and groups of boys and girlsseparated to perform the various Hallowe'en stunts provided. The Pirateof Penzance had held Betty's arm coming down stairs, but now, with thegirl she thought was Marcella--indeed it _must_ be--he was guiding thisone or that one and helping to start the fun. _Could_ it be TedDorrance? He was tall enough, but no; he was good-looking but his chinwas different and his mouth firmer some way; and if it were Ted, he hadstained his skin darker, that was all.
But Betty had little time to think. She was doing things with the rest,with boys and girls whose identity she did not know. Neither Kathryn norCarolyn were in sight, though the light was dim enough in this spookyplace, and they might be around.
And now her turn came to go into the "hole in the wall," a jog of somesort in the solid masonry, before which a black curtain fell. By thelight from a widely grinning pumpkin Betty read the charm which wassupposed to keep her from baleful influences:
"O Witches and Goblins, by this little light, Please send me the face of my true love tonight!"
"Say it out loud," prompted a voice behind Betty. The black witch stoodthere.
"All right. Do I light my candle first?"
"Yes." The witch, who wanted to laugh herself and chuckled a little nowover something Betty wondered about, held out a match.
Betty scratched the match on the rough stone of the basement's bigpartition. It went out and so did a second one. There was a littledraught somewhere, that made the curtain shake a little.
"Don't let the third one go out," warned the witch, now solemn andspeaking with a deep voice. "When the third one fails, the bad luckhails!"
"How awful!" cried Betty, giggling as she struck the third match. Butshe held her hand so that the little flame was sheltered from thedraught and the candle was lit successfully.
"Better watch the flame while you go behind the curtain," suggested thewitch in almost human tones, "and don't set anything on fire. Here's themirror."
Darkness met Betty as she passed beyond the curtain. She felt likeexamining the place, especially when she heard a door softly close. Itseemed right by her--oh, her candle went out! Oh, but it was spooky.Well, she'd brace up, say her little charm and pretend when she went outthat it had been all right.
"O Witches and Goblins, by this little light, Please send me the face of my true love tonight!"
Betty's voice was a little unsteady. It wasn't any fun to be in thisunknown spot all in the dark. That thick curtain behind her didn't letin a bit of light. She'd wait just the appropriate moment when she wouldbe supposed to look in the mirror and then _wouldn't_ she skip out!
But in that little moment a match struck close by her and while shecould not help a low exclamation, her candle was lit for her and a voicewhispered, "Good work. You didn't squeal or anything. I was here justfor fun, but I didn't blow your candle out. I shut the door that hadsprung open. See?"
"Oh!" gasped Betty, looking at the brown hands that lit the candle.
"Now you shall see somebody, if it isn't your own true love," whisperedthe voice. "Look in your mirror, Titania!"
Betty looked. She saw the dark costume of the Pirate of Penzance, whoseamused face, _without the mask_, smiled at her from the mirror. "Oh!"she gasped again.
"Now let me see _you_ without the mask," whispered the lips in themirror.
Betty handed her candle to the pirate and obediently took off her mask,smiling up with confidence into the "nice face" that the supposed piratecarried.
"Thanks," said he, "Good-bye."
The pirate blew out the candle this time and Betty heard the door nearat hand softly close. He had gone, and Betty lost no time in appearingbeyond the curtain. The witch looked suspiciously at her and Betty wasglad that the light was dim in the basement. She kept away from the raysof the pumpkin.
"Didn't your light go out?" asked the witch. "I was talking to the nextmasker but I saw no light for a moment through the crack by thecurtain."
"Yes, but--there was a match there--so I--well, I looked in the mirrorall right and, of course, I saw my true love!"
"Fine," said the girl to test her luck next. "Hurry up and give me amatch, please. That whole bunch that's bo
bbing for apples is coming herenext."
Betty was glad that there was opportunity for no more questioning, suchas "where did the match come from?" Why, what a funny time! The Pirateof Penzance was nobody she had ever seen before. He must be some friendof Marcella's who knew all about the place, basement and all. And wasn'tit nice of him to do that? He was quite clear that he wasn't her "truelove," though he looked older, older than Ted even, and perhaps he wasengaged to somebody. Of course! He was some University student, engagedto some senior who was here. No, if she had been here, he wouldn't havepaid so much attention to Betty and danced with her so much. Well, then,he was just helping Marcella with her party and having a lot of fun onthe side.
By this time Betty was used to mingling with the unknown, guessing atwho they were and joking with any one at all as it happened. She thoughtshe knew a few of the juniors, whom she had known as sophomores lastyear. Then there was some of her own class she was pretty sure, boysthat would be invited to equalize the numbers of boys and girls, and sheknew what girls of her class had been invited. Size, however, was nohelp, for even if juniors were supposed to be older and to be still"growing," some of the juniors were shorter than some of the sophomores.
Carolyn Gwynne was going up from the basement as Betty reached thestairs. "Oh, Betty, I mean Titania," she cried, lowering her voice. "Iguess nobody heard that. Excuse me. Did you go in to look in the mirrorand did they have the big mirror up then?"
"No. I mean I went in to see my true love in a glass, but I was given alittle hand mirror."
"Well, when I went in they had a square mirror propped on a sort ofledge in front of me. But the next girl had just gotten inside when shedropped her candle and squealed terribly and I suppose she reached outto grab something and down came the mirror and smashed like everything!
"She came out all scared to pieces and the witch started to tell her itwas bad luck all in fun, but the girl cried and Marcella came running totell her that the mirror didn't matter and there wasn't any such thingas good and bad luck really."
"Which girl was it?"
"She took off her mask, but I didn't know her. It was some junior girl,I think. Marcella took her upstairs. Why, she is in a colonial costume,Martha Washington or Dolly Madison or something like that."
"I don't believe Martha and Dolly would dress alike, Carolyn," laughedBetty. "Let's go and sit down somewhere. I think the orchestra's goingto play again. So many of the crowd have come up from 'witchdom' now. Itwas sort of spooky downstairs, but such fun."
"Wasn't it. Did you see anything in your mirror, Betty?"
"Oh, of course," laughed Betty, who wasn't going to tell. Not evenCarolyn, or Kathryn were to know about that little interchange betweenTitania, queen of the fairies, and a Pirate of Penzance!
Betty was conscious of some inward excitement later, when the littleorchestra played familiar and lively tunes and the invitation to supperwas given. What exclamations and little squeals and giggles and happylaughter there were when the unmasking took place at the tables.
"I knew all the time it was you!"
"Oh, you fooled me perfectly! I hadn't an idea!"
"I thought it was you, and then you had changed your voice so that I wasnot sure."
"You gave yourself away when you used that funny expression about Jean.I'd heard you say that before."
"Yes, and when you wrinkled up your forehead I knew _you_!"
Such were some of the merry expressions.
Betty was quite impressed; but she looked all around, as best she couldwithout seeming to look, to see if she could see the Pirate of Penzance.But he was nowhere to be seen and much else engrossed her attention, herpretty place card, the little Hallowe'en souvenir at each plate, thegood supper, light but savory, and the general jollity. Betty hadscarcely given a thought to Lucia, except to wonder if a pretty Italianpeasant could be Lucia. But she found herself at the same table withLucia, who was in a beautiful costume as the Queen of Sheba. Real jewelsflashed on her neck and arms and Betty wondered how she dared wear them.
"Are you all over your being bitten by the snake, Lucia?" someone asked.
"Oh, yes. I want to forget it. It didn't make me sick at all, thoughMother kept me at home from school for several days. She wasn't surewhat sort of a snake it was, you see, so she had everything attended to.I'm going on hikes and everything just the same, though I'll not try topick a flower without looking. That serpent ought to have been in winterquarters and wasn't."
"Are you going in for athletics?"
"Some of it. I'm going to swim, like Betty Lee, and then I ride, thoughI may not enter their course here. I play hockey on the ice, but I don'tknow about it here. You have regular class teams, don't you, and have tobe elected in some way before you can be on one?"
"Yes, in a way you're chosen."
"Well, I'm not an applicant for anything." Lucia smiled but tossed herhead up a little proudly, and a look was exchanged between two of thesophomores. If Lucia played hockey in Switzerland, she might not be abad person to have on the team. Perhaps she could be persuaded to "tryout" for it. They would get her to play on a "scrub team" some time forfun.
But what was that junior saying?
"What is a mere hockey team to the Queen of Sheba?"