CHAPTER XV
A FIRELIGHT COUNCIL
It was well after midnight when the theatre party returned to Mabel'shome, rather sleepy, but delighted with their glimpse of pleasure-lovingNew York by night. After the theatre they were invited to be Mr. Ashe'sguests at supper, and were promptly whisked away in their motor car toone of New York's particularly exclusive hotels, where a deliciouslittle supper was served to them in one of the hotel's private diningrooms.
Half-past eight o'clock Thanksgiving morning found the six girlsdownstairs and seated at the breakfast table. Mr. Ashe, who made it anironclad rule always to be in his office at half-past eight o'clock,even on holidays, had time for only a hasty good morning all aroundbefore his man announced that his car was at the door.
"Remember, Mab, you are to bring the girls down to my office afterThanksgiving services this morning," he called back as he paused on thethreshold of the dining room.
"I'll remember, General," called Mabel, with a military salute.
"Oh, are we going to church this morning?" asked Elfreda quickly.
"Yes. There is to be a short but beautiful service in the church Fatherand I attend. You will hear some wonderful music, too."
"We went to church here in New York City on Thanksgiving Day, threeyears ago," said Grace. "Anne, Miriam and I were visiting the Southards.We went to a church whose minister had at one time been an actor."
"Oh, yes, I know that church, and I have met the minister. I interviewedhim last fall and then wrote a story about him for the paper. He is afine man. I wish I knew Everett Southard and his sister."
"You shall know them as soon as they return from England," promisedAnne. "I am sure they will be pleased to know you."
"I hope so," returned Mabel. "It was a great honor for Mr. Southard tohave such a flattering offer from that great English manager, wasn'tit?"
"Did you know that Anne could have gone with them if she had beenwilling to put off her graduation for another year?" asked Miriam.
"I didn't know it, but I'm not surprised," responded Mabel. "Neitherfame nor honor would tempt you to allow your chums to finish the racewithout you. Isn't that true, Anne?"
"True as can be," affirmed Anne. "I owe my greatest happiness to them. Icouldn't desert them if I were asked to star in the whole Shakesperianrepertoire." Her brown eyes looked tender loyalty at her three friendsas she made this assertion.
"We couldn't get along without Anne," declared Miriam. "She is ourbalance wheel. She doesn't say much, but whatever she says counts."
"How ridiculous!" scoffed Anne. "These self-reliant persons don't need abalance wheel, Mabel."
"Some of us do," observed Grace, an expression of pain in her fine eyes.
"You don't," contradicted Elfreda pointedly.
Mabel eyed the two girls reflectively. "I'm a mind reader," sheannounced. "I understand both of you. After church this morning I amgoing to call a general welfare meeting in the library. Our universeneeds regulating." She smiled gayly upon her guests, yet there was ahint of purpose in her tone as she added: "At least we can exchangevaluable information and get down to cause and effect."
After breakfast, a great scurrying to get ready for church ensued, andan hour later their big, faithful motor carried them off to theThanksgiving service.
"It doesn't seem a bit like Thanksgiving," commented Miriam, as theysped down Riverside Drive.
"More like Indian summer," observed Patience.
The day was glorious with sunshine. There was hardly a suspicion offrost in the air and the snowy setting considered so essential to asuccessful Thanksgiving Day was entirely absent.
"We never have this kind of Thanksgiving weather in Oakdale, do we,Grace?" asked Miriam.
"Neither do we in Fairview," put in Elfreda. "I can recall only oneThanksgiving that wasn't snowy, and I can remember that because Ibehaved so outrageously. I was a young barbarian of eight, who screamedand kicked my way to whatever I wanted. Two days before Thanksgiving Pabrought me home a sled. It was red with a white deer painted on it andunderneath the deer was the word 'Fleet,' printed in big white letters.I knew that with such a name it could hardly help being the best sled inFairview. The night before Thanksgiving the rain came down in torrentsand the next morning there wasn't a square inch of snow for miles aroundon which to try out my beloved sled.
"It was a bitter morning for me, and I proceeded to wreak my displeasureupon my family. I behaved like a savage all day and ended by beinglocked in Ma's room with my Thanksgiving dinner on a tray, minusdessert. I got even that night, though, for Ma had invited our ministerand his wife to dinner. I waited until I had had my dinner and they hadfinished, too, and were sitting in the parlor. Then I began screamingdown a register, which was right over them, my very candid opinion ofthem and of Thanksgiving Day in general.
"It was funny, wasn't it?" she chuckled in answer to the burst oflaughter that greeted her recital. "But it was dreadful for poor Ma. Theminister's wife never forgave me for it. She always referred to mebehind my back as that 'terrible Briggs child.'"
"Another reminiscence for 'The Adventures of Elfreda,'" said Miriam.
"Elfreda is going to write a book of her early adventures andmisadventures," explained Grace to Patience. "Did we ever tell you aboutit?"
"No; but in the event of its publication I speak now for an autographedcopy," returned Patience, with twinkling eyes.
"I'll have one done up for you in crushed Levant," was Elfreda's promptoffer.
"This is our church," proclaimed Mabel. The car found a place for itselfin the long line of automobiles drawn up at the curb, and, alightingfrom it, the party made their way sedately up the broad stone walk tothe main entrance of the stately, gray stone edifice.
During the beautiful Thanksgiving service Grace's thoughts would driftinto the same painful channel that she had inwardly vowed to avoid. Thesweetness of the music made her think of home, and the earnest words ofthe minister sank deep into her heart. She, who had so much to thank herfather and mother for, had carelessly allowed the name of Harlowe to bedragged into the limelight of police court news. She was unworthy of herparents' confidence. That she was unjustly severe in herself-arraignment did not occur to Grace. It was her first experiencewith real remorse and, as is usually the case, she did not allow herselfthe luxury of extenuating circumstances.
When she bowed her head during the concluding prayer her eyes were fullof tears and it was only by desperate effort that she managed to winkthem back.
"Father wants to see us now, you know," Mabel reminded her guests, asthey took their places once more in the automobile. "To Father'soffice," she directed the chauffeur, and the car with its freight ofhappy girls glided down the avenue toward the section of the city inwhich Mr. Ashe's office was situated.
"Of course, Father's employees don't work to-day," explained Mabel asthey rolled along. "His private secretary is with him, but his officesare closed. He wishes us to take luncheon with him, then we are to gofor a drive through Central Park. You've taken that drive before, Isuppose, but it is such a beautiful day and all New York will be inevidence. I thought you would enjoy seeing the world and his wife outfor a holiday."
"We have hardly seen enough of Central Park to grow tired of it," smiledGrace. "Anne is a seasoned New Yorker and so is Elfreda, but Miriam andI never stayed here for any length of time. Patience will have to answerfor herself."
"My knowledge of the metropolis is vague, and my experience here hasconsisted largely in being rushed from the depot to the hotel, and fromthe hotel to the depot. So you can readily see that Central Park is inthe nature of an innovation, to me," responded Patience.
Luncheon was eaten in a restaurant whose extreme exclusiveness made itan especially desirable place for Mr. Ashe to entertain his daughter andher guests. The drive through Central Park came next, and it was afterfour o'clock before they turned into Riverside Drive for home.
"Please come down to the library as soon as you take off your wraps,"dire
cted Mabel. "The time for the council has arrived."
"Only Campfire girls have councils," retorted Miriam.
"What do you know about Campfire girls?" demanded Mabel.
"A whole lot," put in Grace. "We met five girls last summer who had justbeen on a trip through the White Mountains. They called themselves the'Meadow-Brook Girls,' but they were real Campfire girls. They had spenta summer in camp and had won whole strings of beads for theirachievements."
"They spent a day or two in Oakdale," explained Miriam. "One of them, afunny little girl who lisped, was a cousin of Hippy Wingate. Her namewas Grace Thompson, but her three chums called her Tommy. They had aguardian with them, too, a Miss Elting."
"I liked the tall one, Miss Burrell, best," continued Grace, "but theywere all interesting. The girl who owned the car was a Miss McCarthy, atrue Irish colleen and awfully witty. She and Nora O'Malley sworefriendship on sight. Then there was a stout girl whose nickname was'Buster,' and a quiet, brown-eyed girl named Hazel Holland. They writeto me occasionally and they are all going to Overton when they havefinished high school."
"Why did they call themselves the 'Meadow-Brook Girls'?"
"Oh, that was the name of their home town."
"What good times they must have had," commented Mabel.
"They did, and all sorts of hairbreadth escapes as well. They won everso many honor beads for bravery and prompt action in time of danger. Butto return to the subject of our council. Don't you think we had betterput our wraps away and convene? That's what councils do, isn't it?"
"Convene is correct," Elfreda assured her gravely. "Allow me to head theprocession upstairs. The sooner we go up the sooner we shall come down."
A little later they clustered about the cheerful open fireplace in thelibrary. Mabel, who was seated on a stool at one side of the fire,reached forward for the poker and prodded the half-burnt logenergetically. The others watched her in silence until she laid down thepoker with a suddenness that caused them all to start, and turning aboutsaid almost brusquely: "I wish you girls to tell me frankly everythingabout Kathleen West. Until that 'Larry, the Locksmith' story came out Ihadn't the slightest idea that there was anything save the pleasantestrelations between her and Grace. That story set me to thinking. I knewsomething was wrong, for Grace had told me the Oakdale part of it instrict confidence. When I received a cold little note from Miss Westdeclining my invitation, I was sure of it. Whatever it is, I feelresponsible, for I asked you to look out for Miss West in the firstplace. Won't you please tell me all about it?"
They Clustered About the Fireplace.]
Mabel's frank appeal was irresistible.
"I am sure it would be better to tell Mabel everything from thebeginning," said Anne in a decided tone.
"I agree with Anne," came from Miriam.
"Of course she ought to know it," declared Elfreda. "Didn't I say solast year?"
"Last year!" exclaimed Mabel. "How long has this unpleasant state ofaffairs been going on?"
"Ever since the early part of our junior year," admitted Grace. "Idisliked to write you of it. We thought she would change. We dideverything we could to please her, but she is not in the least like anyother girl I have ever known. Ask Patience about her. She rooms withMiss West."
"Do you?" Mabel turned her amazed glance upon Patience. "And not one ofyou said a word to me of it."
"We thought it better not to mention Miss West," said Grace slowly. "Youcan readily understand our attitude, Mabel. I feel as though I ought totell you that she came to New York on the same train with us. She was inthe car ahead of ours."
"Then I shall surely see her before she goes back to Overton. I supposeshe came down purposely to be patted on the back for her big story. Nowbegin the terrible tale of how it all happened."
Grace began with their meeting of Kathleen West at the Overton stationand of their ready acceptance of the newspaper girl for Mabel's sake.When she told of Kathleen's sudden avoidance of her and the othermembers of the Semper Fidelis Club, and of her subsequent intimacy withAlberta Wicks and Mary Hampton, Mabel exclaimed impatiently: "Thosegirls again! They were born trouble-makers, weren't they?"
"But they turned out beautifully," defended Grace, "only I haven'treached that part of my story yet. It is really a very nice part, onlyso many disagreeable things happened before it."
"I shall never notice Kathleen West again!" was Mabel's indignant crywhen Grace had finished the account of Kathleen's attempt to spoilArline's unselfish Christmas plan.
"You mustn't say that." Grace grew very earnest. "That was just thereason I didn't wish you to know. I can't bear to be a tale-bearer, butstill I believe it is your right to know the facts. You are one of us,and we have no secrets from one another, yet I don't like to say anything that will lower her in your estimation. She may have been a truefriend to you."
"Don't worry about that part of it, Grace. You aren't a tale-bearer."Mabel reached forward to pat Grace's hand. "If only you had told me longago."
Grace continued her narrative, ending with Kathleen's final attempt tobe revenged on the Semper Fidelis Club, and the clever way in which shehad been brought to book by none other than Alberta Wicks and MaryHampton.
"What a little villain she is, and how splendidly Alberta and Maryturned out," interposed Mabel. "She was far too clever to give me thefaintest inkling of the truth. I used to wonder why she was always sononcommittal about things at Overton. I laid it to her peculiartemperament, never suspecting that she had good reason for refusing todiscuss her college life. I had an idea her cleverness would pave theway to great things for her at Overton. I supposed her to be verypopular."
"Wait until I finish my discourse," smiled Grace, "then you shall hearwhat Patience, the All Wise, thinks of her." She went over ratherhurriedly her recognition of "Larry, the Locksmith" in the streets ofOverton, of how she had trailed him within sight of his hiding place,and of her tardy remembrance of her promise to her father. "I wasuncertain what to do, when I happened to catch sight of Miss West,"continued Grace. "An evil genius must have prompted me to take her intomy confidence. But it was a good story, and Patience had told me only aday or two before that Miss West had been mourning over her lack of newsfor her paper. She made what I believed to be a promise to leave out theOakdale part of the story and not to use my name within it. Not a lineof the Oakdale part of the story appeared in the Overton papers. Thechief of police kept his word, at any rate.
"I never dreamed of her treachery until I received your letter and theclipping. I know Father and Mother have read it. Father always buys thatpaper. I haven't heard a word from home since then." Grace's voicefaltered.
"You poor, dear child!" cried Mabel, springing from her stool and goingover to Grace.
"Don't sympathize with me, Mabel, or I shall cry." Grace raised her headsmilingly, but her gray eyes were full of tears.
"I've vowed eternal vengeance," proclaimed Elfreda savagely. She couldnot endure the thought that Grace should be made so unhappy.
"It is my own fault." Grace had regained her composure. "Perhaps someday I'll learn not to dive into things head first. I am sure I havedispleased and hurt Father, or he would have written me before this."
"I think Miss West has behaved abominably, and I hope you will forgiveme for having asked you to help her. If she is still in the office onSaturday I shall not hesitate to take her to task for herdouble-dealing."
"I am quite frank in saying that you may tell her whatever you choose."Grace's voice sounded very hard.
"Grace Harlowe, what has come over you?" exclaimed Elfreda. "You usuallypreach moderation, but now you are as vindictive and resentful as anIndian."
"Not quite," retorted Grace, half smiling. "I am merely what one mightterm 'deeply incensed.' It isn't a dangerous state, but it usually lastsa long time. Now, I've said the very last word of my say. It is yourtime to talk, Patience."
"I haven't much to say," began Patience, "except that Miss West isnaturally rather hard and self-centered
and her work as a reporter hasaccentuated it. Her ambition blinds her sense of honor. I suppose shehas one, although I have occasionally doubted it."
"Don't you approve of newspaper work for women?" asked Mabel quickly.
"I ought to." The words slipped out unawares. "That is--I----"
"I know why!" cried Elfreda, wagging her head in triumph. "Because sheis an editor's daughter and knows that a newspaper could not runsuccessfully without women. James Merton Eliot, the well-known newspapereditor, is her father."
Exclamations of surprise greeted this announcement. To Miriam, Anne andMabel this was news indeed, but the astonishment of Patience arose froma far different cause.
"How did you know it?" Patience asked Elfreda in open amazement.
"Oh, I heard you explaining to Grace at luncheon one day just how theSunday section of a newspaper was put together. I could see you knewwhat you were talking about, and made up my mind then that you didn'tget your information from Miss West. Then you dropped a letter one daywhen we were crossing the campus addressed to James Merton Eliot, TheElms, South Framingham, Massachusetts. I picked it up and handed it toyou, but I couldn't help seeing the address. I didn't think anything ofit until I happened to read an article in a magazine on noted men ofaffairs, and found the same name staring me in the face. For a long timeI couldn't think of why that particular name seemed familiar. Then Iremembered. Still, I had never heard you say a word about your father'sbusiness. One night I asked you about him and you didn't give me anysatisfaction. I could see that you didn't want to answer, so I didn'tsay another word, but I kept on wondering. What are you all laughingat?" she demanded, darting a suspicious glance about the circle ofsmiling faces.
"Elfreda, you are a wonder! I make my bow to you." Patience rose and,walking over to where Elfreda sat, bowed low before her.
Elfreda's plump hand was raised in protest, but there was curiositywritten on every feature. "What made you keep it a secret?"
"I have designs on an editorial position on the 'College Herald' nextyear. But I want to win my literary spurs through my own efforts. Idon't believe in reflected glory." Patience's earnestness wasconvincing.
"Neither do I," agreed Mabel heartily. "You won't object if the editorof our paper knows, though, will you? He is an old friend of Father's. Iam sure he will never forgive me if I don't introduce you to him. I amgoing to take you girls to the office with me on Saturday. But to goback to the object of our council, what are we to do in the case of MissWest?"
"Nothing." Grace spoke decisively.
"Oh, yes, we must do something, Grace dear," admonished Patience. "Wemustn't give her up in this fashion."
"Then, suggest something," retorted Grace with an impatient frown.
"I will before long," promised Patience. "I can't think of a singlething now, but the inspiration will come. Will you all agree to help ifI think of something startlingly worth while?"
"I'll consider the matter," was Mabel's dry comment.
The other girls answered in the affirmative, but without enthusiasm.Grace's almost hostile attitude toward Kathleen had had a potent effectupon them. Patience, feeling their acquiescence to be perfunctory, saidno more on the subject. There was a perceptible lull in theconversation, then Mabel proposed that Miriam play for them, and thecouncil broke up with alacrity and strolled off to the music room.
"It's time to dress for dinner. Father will be here soon," announcedMabel. "To-night we are to have a little dance. I have been keeping itas a surprise for you. We have a perfectly darling ballroom in the houseand I have invited a number of my friends to meet you."
Mabel's announcement was received with exclamations of delight. Whatgirl does not welcome the very idea of a real dance to the notes of areal orchestra? The Overton girls went upstairs to dress for the comingdance, and for the time being their self-imposed problem of thenewspaper girl was forgotten.