CHAPTER XIV
THE INITIATION
The first days at Glenwood revolved like a magic kaleidoscope--all bitsof brilliant things, nothing tangible, and nothing seemingly important.Dorothy had made her usual good friends--Tavia her usual jolly chums.But Viola Green remained a mystery.
She certainly had avoided speaking to Dorothy, and had not even takenthe trouble to avoid Tavia--she "cut her dead." Edna tried to persuadeTavia that "Fiddle" was a privileged character, and that the seemingslights were not fully intended; but Tavia knew better.
"She may be as odd as she likes," insisted the matter of fact girl fromDalton, "but she must not expect me to smile at her ugliness--it isnothing else--pure ugliness."
Dorothy had sought out Viola, but it was now plain that the girlpurposely avoided her.
"Perhaps she is worrying about her mother, poor dear," thought thesympathetic Dorothy. "I must insist on cheering her up. A nice walkthrough these lovely grounds ought to brighten her. And the leaves onthese hills are perfectly glorious. I must ask her to go with me on mymorning walk. I'll go to her room to-night after tea--duringrecreation. I have not seen her out a single morning yet."
So Dorothy mused, and so she acted according to the logical result ofthat musing. At recreation time that evening Dorothy tapped gently onthe door of Number Twelve.
The door was slightly ajar, and Dorothy could hear the sounds of papersbeing hastily gathered up. Then Viola came to the entrance.
"May I come in?" asked Dorothy, surprised that Viola should have madethe question necessary.
"Oh, I am so busy--but of course--Did you want to see me?" and therewas no invitation in the voice or manner.
"Just for a moment," faltered Dorothy, determined not to be turned awaywithout a hearing.
Viola reluctantly opened the door. Then she stepped aside withoutoffering a chair.
"I have been worried about you," began Dorothy, rather miserably. "Areyou ill, Viola?"
"111? Why not at all. Can't a girl attend to her studies withoutexciting criticism?"
Dorothy's face burned. "Oh, of course. But I did not see you out atall--"
"Next time I leave my room I'll send the Nicks word," snapped Viola."Then they may appoint a committee to see me out!"
Dorothy was stung by this. She had expected that Viola would resentthe interference--try to keep to her chosen solitude--but the rudenesswas a surprise.
"But you are getting pale, Viola," she ventured. "Couldn't youpossibly take your exercise with me to-morrow? I would so like to haveyou. The walk over the mountains is perfectly splendid now."
"Thank you," and Viola's black eyes again looked out of their depthswith that strange foreign keenness. "But I prefer to walk alone."
Dorothy was certain a tear glistened in Viola's eye.
"Alone!" repeated the visitor. "Viola, dear, if you would only let mebe your friend--"
"Dorothy Dale!" and the girl's eyes flashed in anger. "I will havenone of your preaching. You came here to pry into my affairs just asyou did on the train, when you made me tell all about my dear, darlingmother's illness, before those giggling girls. Yes, you need not playinnocent. I know the kind of girl you are. 'Sugar coated!' But youmay take your sympathy where strangers will be fooled by it. Try it onsome of the Babes. But you must never again attempt to meddle in myaffairs. If you do I'll tell Miss Higley. So there! Are yousatisfied now?"
Dorothy was stunned. Was this flaming, flashing girl the same that hadsmiled upon her when the sick mother was present? What was thatstrange unnatural gleam in the black eyes? Anger or jealousy?
"I am sorry," faltered Dorothy; then she turned and left the room.
One hour later Tavia found Dorothy buried in her pillows. Tears wouldstill come to her eyes, although she had struggled bravely to suppressthem.
"Doro!" exclaimed her friend in surprise. "Are you homesick?"
"No," sobbed the miserable girl. "It isn't exactly homesick--." Thenthe thought came to her that she should not implicate Viola, she hadpromised to save her from further suffering. Surely she had enoughwith the sick mother.
"Then what is it?" demanded Tavia.
"Oh, I don't know, Tavia," and she tried again to check her tears, "butI just had to cry."
"Nervous," concluded the Dalton girl. "Well, we must cure that. Youknow we are to be initiated this evening. Aren't you scared?"
"Oh, yes," and Dorothy sat upright. "I quite forgot. Do we join theNicks?"
"Unless you prefer the Pills. They are the stiffest set--not a bitlike our crowd. And the way they talk! A cross between a brogue andTom Burbank. 'I came hawf way uptown before I could signal a car-r',"rolled out Tavia, mocking the long A's, and rolled R's of the NewEngland girl. "How's that for English? I call it brogue."
"It does sound queer, but they tell me it is the correctpronunciation," Dorothy managed to say, while working diligently withher handkerchief on her eyes and cheeks.
"Then, as in all things else," declared Tavia, "I am thankful not to beorthodox--I should get tonsilitis if I ever tried anything like that."
"Where is the meeting to be held?" asked Dorothy.
"Don't know--we must not know anything. Ned says it will be easy.Dick is the guide, and I know Cologne has something to do with it. Ido hope you won't be sad-eyed, Doro."
"You can depend upon me to do Dalton justice," declared the girl on thebed. "I'm anxious to see what they will do to us. No hazing, I hope."
"In this Sunday school? Mercy no! No such luck. They will probablymake us recite psalms," asserted the irreverent Tavia.
"But being Parson that would be appropriate for me," Dorothy declared.
"And for a Chris! That would be all right also," added Tavia. "Well,I know one or two."
"There is someone coming to call us," and Dorothy jumped to her feet."I must bathe my stupid eyes."
A half hour later the meeting was called. It was held in a littlerecreation room on the third floor. To this spot the candidates wereled blindfolded. Within the room the shuffling of feet could be heard,then a weird voice said in a muffled tone:
"Hear ye! Honored Nicks! Let their scales fall!"
At the word the bandages were dropped from the eyes of Dorothy andTavia.
A glimpse around the half-lighted room showed a company of masked facesand shrouded forms--sheets and white paper arrangements. On the windowseat sat the Most High Nick--the promoter. At her feet was crouchedthe Chief Ranger.
"Number one!" called the Ranger, and Dorothy was pressed forward.
"Chase that thimble across the room with your nose," demanded theRanger, placing a silver thimble at Dorothy's feet.
Of course Dorothy laughed--all candidates do--at first.
"Wipe your smile off," ordered the Promoter, and at this Dorothy wasobliged to "wipe the smile" on the rather uncertain rug, by brushingher mouth into the very depths of the carpet.
"Proceed!" commanded the Ranger, and Dorothy began the thimble chase.
It is all very well for the "uppers" to laugh at the Babes, but it wasno easy matter to get a thimble across a room by nose effort. YetDorothy was "game," her nominating committee declared in the course oftime, and, between many pauses, chief of which was caused by theirrepressible smiles that had to be wiped off on all parts of the floorfor every offense, Dorothy did get the thimble over to the corner.
"Number two," called the Ranger, and Tavia took the floor.
"The clock," indicated the Promoter, whereupon Tavia was confined in asmall closet and made to do the "Cuckoo stunt." Each hour called wasresponded to by the corresponding "cuckoos," and the effect wasludicrous indeed. Every break in the call meant another trial, butfinally Tavia got through the ordeal.
Next Dorothy was called upon to make a speech--the subject assignedbeing "The Glory of the Nicks." An impromptu speech might be difficultto make under such circumstances had the subject been a word of fourletters, like Snow, Love or even
Hate, but to extemporize on thesociety which was giving her the third degree--Dorothy almost"flunked," it must be admitted.
The final test was that of singing a lesson in mathematics to the tuneof America, and the try that Tavia had at that broke every paper maskin the room--no, not every one, for over in the corner was a mask thatnever stirred, one that left the room before the candidates had beenwelcomed into the society of honorable Nicks. That mask went into roomtwelve.