CHAPTER XIV.--THE HALLOWE'EN HOUSE PARTY.
"My Dear Miss Campbell:
Do you think your nice young charge would be bored by a visit to ourlonely old home in the country? Percival has set his heart on giving aHallowe'en house party for some of his particular friends, and I findWilhelmina's name the very first on the list. I shall promise to lookafter her in every way exactly as if she were my own child, guard herfrom draughts, see that she has plenty of covering on her bed and thatshe wears her overshoes if the ground is damp.
My boy would be quite inconsolable, and I should too, my dear friend, ifshe is not to be among our guests. I cannot offer many inducementsexcept the pleasure which young people always bring to a house, but Icandidly believe that Percival would give up the idea if she should notbe able to come.
Most cordially yours, Antoinette Juliana St. Clair."
Miss Campbell smiled as she handed the note to Billie one morning at thebreakfast table. The two fanciful names of the good-natured, cordialwidow always amused her.
"The lonely old home in the country," so modestly referred to, was oneof the finest places in the county, and nothing was more coveted by theyoung people in West Haven than an invitation to one of Percival's houseparties, where everything that the widow and her son could devise wasdone for the amusement of the guests.
"Of course you must go, dear. I wouldn't have you miss it for worlds.The change will do you good. I have been troubled about you lately, mychild, and if this invitation had not come, I was going to insist onyour seeing the doctor. I don't think your liver has been behavingitself. You have been so out of sorts. But perhaps a little amusementwill be better for you than a calomel pill."
"Oh, I am quite well, Cousin Helen," exclaimed Billie. "It'smathematics, I suppose, that affects my liver."
But Billie was more eager than she would admit to accept Mrs. St.Clair's invitation. The truth is, the young girl's conscience had notbeen easy lately. She felt that she had done something which would havegrieved and displeased her father and she could not be perfectly happyuntil she had confessed her sins and been forgiven.
You perhaps have guessed already that the ten new five-dollar billswhich Mary Price had consigned to Miss Gray's care the morning after therobbery in the school room, was Billie's money.
"You shall take it, Mary," she insisted. "Aren't we exactly the same assisters? I don't want the money, and I know papa would be glad if heknew."
Billie had finally agreed with Mary that it would only make matters morecomplicated to tell Miss Gray that fifty dollars some one had placed inMary's desk, no doubt to tempt or catch her, as in the case of thetwenty dollars, had been stolen by a robber almost immediately.
Older and wiser people would have told Billie that this was a very poorpiece of advice, and the deed was no sooner accomplished than the twogirls themselves realized that they had made a mistake. Miss Gray'smanner to Mary was cold and formal and the situation was not in theleast relieved. The unhappy girl had hoped that the principal wouldspeak to her again about the money, but the subject was never mentioned.
"It was all my fault, Mary. I advised you and forced you to do it. Itwas not exactly dishonest, but it wasn't sincere, and I am beginning tothink Miss Gray is suspicious of me, too."
Another thing had happened which made Billie uncomfortably and extremelyill at ease in her mind. Burglars had broken into Mrs. Price's home, butthey had only succeeded in giving Mary and her mother a great fright,and had taken nothing.
In her heart Billie knew what the robbers really wanted. It was the boxof jewels locked up in Mrs. Price's safe.
"I have done wrong," she kept saying to herself. "Papa always said thatmy heart ruled my head and that I had no judgment. I should never haveburdened Mary and Mrs. Price with that wretched box. I am almostsuperstitious about it, because it brings so much bad luck on people.After the house party, I shall take it away."
As a matter of fact, everything was postponed until after the houseparty, and the world for eight young people seemed to stand still. TheEnglish nation could not look forward with greater eagerness to theCoronation than our four Motor Maids and their friends to Percy'sHallowe'en house party. It was only a part of the good fortune whichalways followed Percy that Hallowe'en that year fell on Friday, and thatthe weather was perfect.
They were to have three evenings of fun and frolic with the Hallowe'enball on Friday night.
In the joy of anticipation and preparation, Billie and Mary lost sightof their troubles. Nancy was bubbling over with delight and Elinorforgot her usual sense of dignity and gave an indecorous exhibition ofhappiness by doing a Dutch twirl all by herself.
"Of course, we shall all go in 'The Comet,'" announced Billie. "It willbe lots more fun than driving behind those poky old carriage horses thatbring Percy and Mrs. St. Clair in to church every Sunday."
"Of course," echoed the others.
There was, indeed, only one flaw in their happiness. Mrs. St. Clair, whowas intimate with the Rogers family, had insisted on inviting BelleRogers.
"Who cares?" exclaimed Billie. "She can't interfere with our good timeand we certainly won't interfere with hers."
The St. Clair place was eight miles outside of West Haven on the mainroad. A long avenue bordered with immense pine trees led up to thecommodious, comfortable old house which seemed to reflect from itsshining windows the cheerful and hospitable character of its mistress.
And when the red motor pulled up in front of "Pine Lodge," as the placewas called, there was the mistress herself smiling in the doorway,making the most delightful picture of welcome Billie had ever seen.
"Think of going to a real house party at last," exclaimed Billie, with asigh of pleasure.
Percival rushed down to help them out; two colored men servants carriedin their luggage, and presently they found themselves standing before aglowing fire in the hall, which was quite big enough and broad enough tobe a room itself.
"It is sweet of you to come out and cheer up two lonely country people,my dears," Mrs. St. Clair was saying, as she kissed them all aroundtwice. "You are really the nicest children. You must promise to tell mewhatever you want, or if you are not warm enough. You know how draughtycountry houses are. Or if you are the least hungry or your beds are notcomfortable or the water isn't hot enough for your baths, or you wishany particular thing to eat----"
"Dear me," laughed Billie, looking around her, "you make us feel likefour visiting princesses, Mrs. St. Clair. I am sure we could never wantfor anything in this cheerful, lovely house."
"Now, Mrs. St. Clair," put in Elinor, "we all know perfectly well thatall the chairs at Pine Lodge are easy and the beds are famous for beingthe most comfortable in the county."
Mrs. St. Clair blushed with pleasure. Next to saying nice things topeople herself, she loved to have them say nice things to her.
"Percival, my darling, where are the others?" she demanded presently."Isn't Belle coming and what is the name of that little foreign girl sheasked to bring with her?"
Percy grinned at his friends good-naturedly, when Merry seized a cushionfrom one of the long settees and began to rock it on his knees, andCharlie gave a silent imitation of a baby's face in the act of crying.But he was used to these endearing names his mother heaped upon him, andhe only replied:
"Give them time, mother; give them time. Remember they didn't ride on acomet the same as this dashing company did. The foreign girl is FannieAlta."
"So it was, and it was sweet and thoughtful of Belle to want to bringher along. She described the poor little thing as being lonely andstrange in West Haven."
The girls exchanged astonished glances at this piece of news. Was itpossible that Belle Rogers and the crafty little Spanish girl whom theyinstinctively distrusted were so intimate as this?
"Here comes Roly Poly McLane," cried Percy, laughing, as he peeredthrough a side light of the front door. "She's as jolly and
fat as aclown elephant in the circus."
"Percy, my love," remonstrated his mother, which slight show ofdisapproval was about as near as she ever got in her life to scoldinghim.
The boys raced down the hall to help Rosomond McLane out of the hightrap in which she had driven over to Pine Lodge from her home a fewmiles away.
"Wait, Roly Poly, until Percy gets a derrick. It's the only safe way tounload heavy bales," cried Merry.
"Roly Poly," said Percy, bowing politely, "these three noble friendshave volunteered with me to help you get out. I offered to do it alone,but mother was afraid my young life would be crushed out of me, ifanything should happen, you know, and----"
"Percival, my darling!" cried Mrs. St. Clair.
"Help me, indeed," exclaimed Rosomond, with a jolly laugh that alwaysstarted an echo of other jolly laughs. "Get out of my way all of you,"and she gave a flying leap from the trap and bounced as she hit theground like a rubber ball.
"My dear Rosomond," cried the widow, running down the steps to meet her,"don't take any notice of these foolish boys. You wouldn't seem the samedear, delightful Rosomond if you weighed a pound less."
"Oh, I don't mind them, Mrs. St. Clair. I'm used to it, you know. Fatheralways calls me 'Baby Elephant' and 'Jumbo,' and the girls at schoolcall me 'Roly Poly,' and Uncle Jim calls me 'Fatty.'"
Several more boys appeared just then and the company followed Mrs. St.Clair into what she called the sitting room, a gay apartment with chintzcurtains at the windows and chintz covered cushions in the deep wickerchairs. Here they had tea and chocolate and hot-buttered toast.
"You must eat plenty of food, you know," Percy's mother had admonishedthem, "because I warn you that you will need all your strength to put upwith the fearful ordeals Percy has planned for to-night----"
"Mother," broke in Percy, "you mustn't tell. You will spoil all thefun."
"I'm not telling, dear. I'm only warning. But you know those things thatjump at you from behind----"
"Stop her quick, somebody," cried her son, pretending to gag her mouthwith a napkin.
It was all very gay and the room buzzed with talk and laughter when thedoor opened and a servant admitted Belle Rogers and Fannie Alta.
Mrs. St. Clair greeted the new visitors as hospitably as she had theothers. She even kissed Fannie's dark, foreign little face and calledher "dear" and drew the girl down beside her on the sofa.
"I want you to feel perfectly at home," she said. "It was so good of youto have come with Belle."
She was really the most delightful, beaming, good-natured creatureimaginable, but all her efforts could not disguise the change whichseemed suddenly to have taken place in the behavior of the others.
Somehow the laughter was less free, the talk less gay and jolly than ithad been, and presently our four particular Motor Maids were glad for anexcuse to go away with Percy and see the conservatories, while Belle andFannie drank their tea with Mrs. St. Clair.
After that it was time to dress for dinner. A neat little maid hadunpacked their bags and laid their best party dresses on the beds. Theywere very simple dresses indeed, and Nancy, at least, thought offloating blue chiffon draperies with a slight sigh of regret.
"Do you know, girls," said Billie, as she tied a pink bow around Nancy'sbunch of curls, "I think we should all take lessons in cheerfulness fromMrs. St. Clair. She's so happy because she always sees the best side ofeverything. Just see how nice she is to Belle and Fannie Alta, forinstance."
"With this beautiful house and all her money and such a nice,good-natured pink-cheeked boy for a son, I think I could even admireBelle Rogers and Fannie Alta," observed Mary.
Then Billie remembered that Mary and her mother were always troubledabout money, and that Mrs. Price was the gentlest, sweetest woman shehad ever known. She wondered if Mrs. St. Clair could ever be ruffled bydisappointment and bad luck, or if everything were not exactly as itshould be, if she would be the same placid, good-natured soul.