CHAPTER XXI.
A BACHELOR'S POCKET.
Miss Steel was a very busy woman that afternoon. She was shut up withJudy Kean for half an hour; she visited the livery stable in thevillage, she paid a call on Dr. McLean and finally she went to seeProfessor Green.
It is in Professor Green's study on the Cloisters that we now find her,sitting bolt upright in her chair, alert and bright-eyed. At such timesas this, Miss Steel is not unlike a hunting dog on the scent of hisquarry.
Professor Green sits at his desk. He looks tired, and his heavy reddisheyebrows are drawn together in a frown. When the inspector came into theroom he had pushed a pile of manuscript under some loose papers, but asheet had slipped off and now lay in plain view. Across it was writtenin a bold hand:
"Exeunt FAIRIES in disorder, leaving WOOD SPRITE at Left Centre.
"THE SONG OF THE WOOD SPRITE."
"I hope you will pardon this intrusion, Professor. I see you are verybusy," the inspector began, glancing at the manuscript with a look ofsome slight amusement.
The Professor hastily covered up the sheet.
"Not at all," he said politely; "I'm just idling away a little time.What can I do for you?"
He had seen Miss Steel about the building and most of the Faculty knewher by this time as "Inspector of Dormitories."
"Do you remember helping a young lady who fainted on the day of thefootball game?"
"Oh, yes, certainly," replied the Professor, absent-mindedly fingeringa paper cutter.
"You lent her your overcoat that afternoon, didn't you?"
"Why, yes; I believe I did."
"Have you worn the coat since?"
"Certainly," he answered, laughing; "every day, and several times a day.It's the only one I have. Are you a detective?"
"Yes. Do you ever put things in the pockets of your coat?"
The Professor smiled shamefacedly like a schoolboy culprit.
"In one of them. There's been a hole in the other one for a longtime--two years at least."
"Would you mind letting me see that coat?"
He lifted the blue overcoat from a hook on the door and placed it on achair beside Miss Steel.
"Am I a suspect?" he asked politely. "Has anything been lost?"
The detective seized the overcoat and began rummaging through thepockets with a practised hand.
"Yes," she answered; "something has been lost, and extremelydisagreeable things have been said by the owner about it."
"About me?" asked the Professor, still groping in the dark.
"No, no; about the girl who lost it."
"Miss Brown?"
The detective did not reply. She had run her hand through the hole inthe pocket and was now searching the corners between the lining and thecloth.
"Ha!" she cried at last, exactly like the detective in a play. "Here itis!"
With a swift movement she extricated her hand from the bottomless pocketand displayed between her thumb and forefinger a large emerald ring.
"Why, that's the ring of my cousin, Judith Blount!" exclaimed theProfessor in amazement. "And I have had it in my pocket all this time.Great heavens! what an extraordinary thing, and how did it get there?"
"Miss Blount forced Miss Brown to take charge of it while she wasplaying football. After Miss Brown came to from her faint, she must havebeen very cold and slipped her hands in the pockets of this coat forwarmth----"
"She did," confirmed the Professor.
"And the ring slipped off. When she found it was lost she got up at dawnnext day and went out in her slippers in the snow to find it, and nearlycaught her death. But she's had no thanks for her trouble from yourrelation, I can assure you. Nothing but abuse----"
"What!" shouted the Professor. "You mean to say that Judith has dared toinsinuate----"
"She has," said Miss Steel.
"And she whom Miss Brown has shielded--great heavens! this is too much."
He began walking up and down the room in a rage.
"Shielded from what?"
"I am not at liberty to tell you," he replied. "The girl repented ofwhat she did. I know that, but she's an ungrateful little wretch."
A scholarly professor of English literature, however, is no match fora well-trained detective, and with a knowing smile on her lips theinspector rose to leave.
"You may return the ring," she said. "It will be a great relief to MissMolly Brown of Kentucky to know it has been found. She was about to giveup two acres of good apple orchard to pay for it; the land, in fact,which was to provide the money for her college expenses."
And with that she sailed out of the room and went straight to the homeof President Walker, with whom she spent the better part of an hour.
Professor Green followed close on her heels. He did not pause at MissWalker's pretty stucco residence, however, but hastened down the campusand rang the bell at Queen's Cottage.
Miss Brown was in, he learned from the maid. She had only arrived fromthe Infirmary that afternoon.
The Professor waited in the sitting room deserted by the students atthat hour, those who were not studying in their rooms being at Vespers.Presently Molly appeared, looking very slender and tall, like a paleflower swaying on its stalk.
The Professor rushed up and seized her hand unceremoniously.
"My dear child!" he cried, "how am I ever going to make my apologies toyou for all this trouble of which I have been the unconscious cause?"
"For what----" began Molly, too much astonished to finish her question.
"The ring! The ring! It's been concealed in the ragged lining of myshabby old overcoat all this time, and that clever detective ofdormitories, or whatever she is, ferreted it out just now. Perhaps Ishould have thought of it myself; but, you see, I hadn't even heard thering had been lost. I am afraid you suffered a great deal."
"I did at first; but after I grew better I never let myself slip backinto that state again. I kept believing it would be found. I was so sureof it that I haven't really been unhappy at all. You see, everybody isso beautifully kind and no one believed----"
"Great heavens!" interrupted the Professor, storming excitedlyaround the room, "that ungrateful, wicked girl to have made such anaccusation--she shall hear from me what she owes to you! I'll take thering to her myself later. She is my cousin, and her brother is as nearto me as my own brother, but----"
"You aren't going to tell Prexy?" cried Molly.
"I must. Besides, I nearly gave it away to Miss Steel."
"Oh, well, if that's the case, she knows already. She's a detective, andif you let two words slip, she can easily guess the rest. There's nokeeping anything from her. You may be sure Prexy knows it by this time."
"I'm rather relieved," said the Professor. "Judith will probably be wellpunished; but she should be."
"I've always wondered," said Molly, after a short pause, "why Judith didit."
The Professor looked at her closely with his humorous brown eyes.
"Have you no idea why?" he asked.
"Except for mischief and to annoy the seniors," she answered.
"Possibly," he said. "A girl who has been spoiled and petted as she haswill give in to almost any whim that seizes her. However, such actionsare not tolerated at Wellington, and she will have to learn a few prettystiff lessons if she expects to remain here."
Then Professor Green shook hands with Molly, gave her a little paternaladvice about taking care of her health, and took his departure. Hisnext destination was the President's house, where he waited in thedrawing-room until Miss Steel had terminated her interview. He wasprepared for a round scolding from his old friend, who had known himsince his early youth, but the President was inclined to be lenient withthe young man.
"It all goes to show," she said at the end of the interview, "thatmurder will out. But why did the foolish girl do that mischievous thing?What did she have to gain by it?"
He shrugged his shoulders.
"Jealous of some one prettier and more popular than herself,
probably,"he answered.
The President sighed.
"Who can understand the intricacies of a young girl's heart," she said."I have been studying them for twenty years, and they are still aclosed book to me."
When Professor Green a little later returned the emerald ring to hiscousin, he cut the visit as short as possible. He told her that she haddeliberately and wrongfully accused one who had shielded her even at therisk of offending the President of Wellington College, and that it washe who had given the detective, already suspicious, the clue she wanted.
Judith wept bitterly, but her cousin showed no signs of relenting.
"If you want to be loved," he said, "learn unselfishness and gentlenessand truthfulness. These are the qualities that make men and womenbeloved. You will never gain anything by cheating and lying."
The end of the episode was a pretty severe punishment for Judith Blount.She was suspended from college for three weeks and was compelled toresign from all societies for the rest of the winter. She left collegenext morning early, and no one saw her again until after Christmas, whenshe returned a much chastened and quieted young woman.
A few days after she had gone Molly received a note from her from NewYork. It read:
"DEAR MISS BROWN:
"Will you forgive me? I am very unhappy.
"JUDITH BLOUNT."
You may be sure that Molly's reply was prompt and forgiving.