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 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 Or 
 
 BLOSSOM TIME AT FRIENDLY TERRACE 
 
 or CALIF.
 
 The Friendly Terrace Series 
 
 BY 
 HARRIET LUMMIS SMITH 
 
 The Girls of Friendly Terrace $1-65 
 
 Peggy Raymond's Vacation - 7.65 
 
 Peggy Raymond's School Days / .65 
 
 The Friendly Terrace Quartette 1.65 
 
 Peggy Raymond's Way - 1.75 
 
 THE PAGE COMPANY 
 53 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass.
 
 PEGGY RAYMOND
 
 jfrienMg Uerrace Series 
 
 PEGGY RAYMOND'S 
 WAY 
 
 Or, Blossom Time at Friendly Terrace 
 
 BY 
 
 HARRIET LUMMIS SMITH 
 
 Author of "The Girls of Friendly Terrace," 
 "Peggy Raymond's Vacation," "Peggy 
 Raymond's School Days," "The 
 Friendly Terrace Quar- 
 tette," etc. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY 
 FRANK T. MERRILL 
 
 BOSTON 
 COMPANY 
 
 m 
 
 THE PAGE 
 MDCCCCXXII
 
 Copyright, 1922, 
 BY THE PAGE COMPANY 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 Made in U. S. A. 
 
 First Impression, August, 1922 
 
 PRINTED BY C. H. SIMONDS COMPANY 
 BOSTON, MASS., U. S. A.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I WHAT'S IN A NAME? ...*.. 1 
 
 II A TELEPHONE PAKTY 22 
 
 III A TRIUMPH OF ART 39 
 
 IV AN AFTERNOON CALL 59 
 
 V THE RUMMAGE SALE 69 
 
 VI PRISCILLA HAS A SECRET .... 85 
 
 VII THE FRIENDLY TERRACE ORPHANAGE . 98 
 
 VIII THE LONGEST WEEK ON RECORD . . 113 
 
 IX THE MOST WONDERFUL THING IN THE 
 
 WORLD 129 
 
 X MISTRESS AND MAID 143 
 
 XI QUITE INFORMAL ...:... 156 
 
 XII GOOD-BY 169 
 
 XIII PEGGY GIVES A DINNER PARTY . . 186 
 
 XIV AT THE FOOT-BALL GAME .... 201 
 XV THE CURE ........ 215 
 
 XVI DELIVERANCE 230 
 
 XVII PEGGY COMES TO A DECISION . . . 241 
 
 XVIII A PARTIAL ECLIPSE . . 252 
 
 2132929
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTEB PAGE 
 
 XIX THE END OP SCHOOL LIFE . . . .268 
 
 XX A SURPRISE ........ 284 
 
 XXI A MISSING BRIDE 296 
 
 XXII A JULY WEDDING . 313
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PEGGY RAYMOND .... Frontispiece 
 " ' COME RIGHT IN,' SAID AMY WITH A MISLEAD- 
 ING AIR OF CORDIALITY " 9 
 
 " ' A HUNDRED DOLLARS AIN*T ANY TOO MUCH TO 
 
 PAY FOR HAVING YOUR LIFE SAVED ' ' . . I2/ 
 " SHE RAISED HER EYES AND MET HIS " . . . 184 
 "PEGGY LOOKED AT HIM WITHOUT REPLYING" . 247
 
 Peggy Raymond's Way 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 WHAT'S IN A NAME? 
 
 IT was the first day of the spring vacation, 
 and Amy Lassell had spent it sewing. To be 
 frank, it had not measured up to her idea of a 
 holiday. Self-indulgence was Amy's besetting 
 weakness. Her dearest friend, Peggy Ray- 
 mond, was never happy unless she was busy at 
 something, but Amy loved the luxury of idle- 
 ness. 
 
 Yet although indolence appealed so strongly 
 to Amy's temperament, to do her justice she 
 was generally able to turn a deaf ear to its 
 call. The first summer after America's entry 
 into the war she had enlisted in the Land Army 
 along with Peggy and Priscilla, and then in the 
 fall had taken up her work at the local Red 
 Cross headquarters, serving in an unpaid posi- 
 tion as conscientiously as if she had received a
 
 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 salary and was depending on it for her bread 
 and butter. 
 
 After a strenuous year with the Ked Cross, 
 Amy had entered college with Euth Wylie. 
 Neither girl had expected to enter till after the 
 close of the war, and Amy was continually 
 harping upon the respect which the young and 
 unsophisticated Freshmen were bound to feel 
 for classmates of such advanced years. But 
 Nelson Hallowell's discharge from the service 
 had altered the aspect of affairs. Euth had 
 pledged herself to keep Nelson's position for 
 him till he should return, and Amy had 
 promised to wait for Euth. The wound which 
 had kept Nelson in the hospital less than a 
 month had nevertheless incapacitated him from 
 military service. Heavy-hearted, he had re- 
 turned to his job at the book store, while Euth 
 and Amy had immediately made their plans for 
 entering college just two years behind Peggy 
 and Priscilla. 
 
 After her months of hard study, the first day 
 of the spring vacation found Amy at the sew- 
 ing machine, which in itself was sufficient proof 
 that, whatever her natural bias in the direction
 
 WHAT'S IN A NAME? 
 
 of indolence, her will was more than a match 
 for that tendency. As a matter of fact she was 
 the only one of the Friendly Terrace quartette 
 to spend the day in unremitting industry. 
 Peggy and Ruth had gone off with Graham for 
 the day. Priscilla was entertaining an out-of- 
 town guest. But Amy, resolution manifest in 
 every Hue of her plump little figure, was sew- 
 ing for dear life. 
 
 Though the armistice had been signed 
 months before, there still remained foes to 
 fight, as the girls had promptly discovered. 
 The reaction from economy and hard work had 
 come in the shape of an orgy of extravagance 
 and frivolity. The high war prices were con- 
 tinually going higher, as dealers realized that 
 people would get what they wanted regardless 
 of price. The four Friendly Terrace girls, 
 after an afternoon of shopping which had 
 ended in the purchase of a box of hair-pins and 
 two spools of thread, had returned home to hold 
 a council of war. 
 
 ' 'The only way to bring prices down is to 
 stop buying things," declared Peggy, with all 
 the authority of a college Junior. "I don't
 
 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 know as I have anything to make over, but if I 
 have, nothing new for me this spring." 
 
 Amy sighed. "I'd just been luxuriating in 
 the thought of a lot of new dresses," she said 
 mournfully. "Don't you know how after 
 you've been dieting, all at once you're hungry 
 for creamed chicken and pineapple fritters, and 
 chocolate with whipped cream, and strawberry 
 sundaes, all rolled into one. And that's just 
 the way I feel about clothes. But I suppose it 
 will end in my making over my blue taffeta." 
 
 "Pve two or three summer dresses that will 
 do very well if I make the skirts scanty," 
 said Euth. "They're too full for this sea- 
 son." 
 
 They talked on seriously, planning their 
 little economies as if they expected unaided to 
 bring down the high cost of living. They were 
 not the sort of girls who follow the crowd un- 
 thinkingly, nor had any of them contracted the 
 fatal habit of asking, "What can one do?" 
 The program they outlined would have resulted 
 in a general lowering of prices in a month's 
 time if every one had agreed to it. And it did 
 not occur to them that public indifference ex-
 
 WHAT'S IN A NAME? 
 
 cused them from doing their little part toward 
 combating a serious evil. 
 
 That was how it happened that Amy Lassell 
 had spent the spring day sewing. The blue 
 taffeta had been ripped and pressed in antici- 
 pation of the vacation leisure, and as soon as 
 the breakfast dishes were out of the way Amy 
 had commandeered the dining-room table as 
 a cutting table. "With the help of a paper 
 pattern she had remodeled the taffeta ac- 
 cording to the latest dictates of fashion. 
 Caution suggested that it would be advisable 
 to wait for assistance in the fitting, but having 
 basted the breadths together and surveyed her 
 reflection in the mirror, Amy had been so 
 favorably impressed that she had gone to work 
 energetically stitching up seams. 
 
 Like many people whose natural tendency is 
 in the direction of indolence, Amy was capable 
 of relentless industry, almost as though she 
 were afraid that if once she halted she might 
 not get her courage to the point of starting 
 again. She swallowed a hasty luncheon and 
 rushed back to her sewing. Her eyes grew 
 tired, her back ached. She became nervous
 
 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 and hot and impatient, so that breaking a 
 thread or dropping a thimble seemed almost a 
 calamity. And yet she did not stop. 
 
 It was after five when she laid her work 
 reluctantly aside. Amy's responsibilities for 
 the day were not limited to the blue taffeta. 
 As in many another household, the domestic 
 service problem had become acute in the 
 Lassell establishment during the last few 
 years. Incapable servants demanding pre- 
 posterous wages, had been replaced by others 
 equally incompetent, and there had been 
 interims when it had been difficult to secure so 
 much as a laundress. Amy and her mother 
 had learned a good many short cuts to achieve- 
 ment, and had accepted the frequent necessity 
 of doing their own work with a philosophy of 
 which they would have been incapable in pre- 
 war times. On this first day of vacation Amy 
 was without a servant, and without a mother, 
 as well; for Mrs. Lassell had left home that 
 morning not to return till nearly bed-time. 
 
 At five o'clock the realization that she must 
 prepare her father's supper forced itself on 
 Amy's attention. It was not a formidable re-
 
 WHAT'S IN A NAME? 
 
 sponsibility, for at breakfast that morning Mr. 
 Lassell had informed her that he was to take 
 a customer out to lurfch and would be satisfied 
 with very little for the evening meal. Amy 
 meant to take him at his word. There was 
 cold meat, quite enough for two, she thought; 
 and some potatoes to fry, and her father did 
 not care much for dessert. Accordingly, 
 Amy had waited till five o'clock before she 
 laid down her sewing, and then she realized 
 for the first time how very tired she was. A 
 glimpse of herself in the mirror emphasized her 
 certainty that it was high time to stop. Amy's 
 fair hair was disheveled, her plump cheeks 
 brilliantly pink. There were dark lines under 
 her eyes, eloquent of weariness. Amy regarded 
 herself with extreme disfavor. 
 
 " Looks as if I'd taken up rouge in my old 
 age. And I positively must do my hair over. I 
 can't ask even poor patient daddy to look at 
 such a frowsy head all through supper. 0, well, 
 he won't mind, if I am a little late." 
 
 Encouraging herself with this reflection, Amy 
 bathed her burning cheeks, combed her hair has- 
 tily, and slipped into a little gingham gown
 
 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 which, if somewhat faded and passee, had at 
 least the merit of being fresh and clean. It but- 
 toned in the back, and by virtue of much twist- 
 ing and stretching Amy finally succeeded in se- 
 curing the middle button which for a time had 
 defied her efforts. And just as she did so, the 
 door-bell rang. 
 
 Amy went placidly downstairs. She had no 
 apprehensions about the door-bell. She took it 
 for granted that it was somebody to collect for 
 the newspaper, or an old-clothes man, or else a 
 friend so intimate that she could ask her into 
 the kitchen while she made her supper prepara- 
 tions. As she reached the door she realized her 
 mistake. Of the two young people waiting ad- 
 mission she had met the sister several times. 
 The brother she knew merely by sight, for the 
 family had moved into the neighborhood only 
 recently. 
 
 For a moment Amy's mood was one of un- 
 qualified dismay. She wanted to turn and run. 
 With lightning-like rapidity she compared her 
 faded gingham with the stylish frock setting off 
 the girlish, graceful figure of Hildegarde Carey. 
 And Hildegarde 's brother, Kobert, if looking a
 
 COME RIGHT IN/ SAID AMY WITH A MISLEADING AIR 
 OF CORDIALITY "
 
 WHAT'S IN A NAME? 
 
 trifle bored, was immaculately attired. Amy 
 recollected that in her absorption with the blue 
 taffeta she had neglected to dust the living room 
 that morning. 
 
 Amy opened the door with a smile that poorly 
 concealed her anguish of spirit. Her flickering 
 hope that Hildegarde had made a mistake in the 
 number was dissipated by the composure of 
 Hildegarde 's greeting. The two young people 
 entered, as Amy realized, without waiting to be 
 asked, and in the hall Hildegarde performed the 
 ceremony of introduction. 
 
 "Come right in," said Amy with a mislead- 
 ing air of cordiality. She wondered if she had 
 better apologize for the undusted living room, 
 but decided against it. Perhaps they would 
 overlook it, though Robert Carey impressed her 
 as one who would notice the least little thing 
 out of the way. Amy decided that the young 
 fellow's handsome face was almost spoiled by 
 its discontented expression. 
 
 Another shock came when she said to Hilde- 
 garde, "Let me take your coat." She expected 
 Hildegarde to reply that the coat was light and 
 that she did not mind it for the few minutes she
 
 10 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 had to stay ; but on the contrary she not only re- 
 moved her coat, but slipped off her gloves, un- 
 pinned her hat, and added it to the collection 
 Amy carried into the hall with a growing sense 
 of stupefaction. "Any one would think," she 
 told herself, "that she was an old friend come 
 to spend the day." 
 
 Perhaps Amy's perplexity partly explained 
 the fact that the next half hour dragged. Amy 
 was not her usual entertaining self. She 
 thought of the dust showing gray against the 
 shining mahogany of the piano. She thought of 
 her faded gingham. She heard herself talking 
 stupidly, unnaturally, and chiefly about the 
 weather. Robert Carey looked more bored than 
 ever. 
 
 At half past six her father came in. He 
 glanced at the group in the living room as he 
 entered, and Amy hastily summoned him. Her 
 guests must realize that when the man of the 
 house came home it was time to leave. Amy 
 introduced her father, pulled out an arm chair 
 invitingly, and Mr. Lassell seated himself. It 
 was from him that his daughter had inherited 
 her sense of humor, and on this occasion he
 
 WHAT'S IN A NAME? 11 
 
 made himself much more entertaining than 
 Amy had done. The conversation became al- 
 most animated. 
 
 The clock in the hall struck seven, tolling out 
 the notes sonorously. Every one seemed to be 
 listening to it, and Amy flushed. It was almost 
 as if the clock had said, "Time to go home! 
 Time to go home!" And then to her horror 
 her father turned toward her inquiringly. 
 "Hadn't you better put on the supper, my 
 dear?" he asked. "Your friends will be get- 
 ting hungry. ' ' 
 
 For an agonized half minute Amy vainly 
 tried to think of something she could say to 
 soften the blow. She was magnanimous enough 
 to acquit her father of all blame. Seeing them 
 sitting there at that hour, especially as Hilde- 
 garde had taken off her hat, he had innocently 
 asumed that they had been invited to dinner. 
 And of course his blunder was equivalent to 
 saying that they had stayed longer than was 
 proper or desirable. 
 
 Then Amy's head whirled again. Her guests 
 did not spring to their feet as she had ex- 
 pected them to do, protesting that they had not
 
 12 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 dreamed it was so late. Instead they sat quite 
 still, only murmuring a polite disclaimer of 
 being hungry. With the force of a blow the 
 realization came over Amy that they had ac- 
 cepted her father 's tacit invitation. They were 
 going to stay to supper. 
 
 Amy rose, murmuring something unintelli- 
 gible, and got out of the room quickly. 0, if 
 Peggy were only home, Peggy who had such a 
 faculty for evolving something savory and ap- 
 petizing from the least promising materials. 
 Amy's cooking until recently had been confined 
 to chafing-dish delicacies and candy. It was 
 too late, she realized, to add to her scanty 
 stores. She must feed four people with what 
 had seemed barely enough for two, and must 
 do it quickly. 
 
 Mechanically she lighted the oven of the gas 
 stove. She remembered there was a can of to- 
 mato soup in the house, and the cold meat, 
 sliced very thin, might possibly pass muster. 
 She herself would refuse meat. Luckily there 
 was a generous plateful of potatoes. Creamed 
 and with a little cheese grated over them, they 
 would be appetizing and filling. She could
 
 WHAT'S IN A NAME? 13 
 
 make baking powder biscuit, Amy excelled in 
 baking powder biscuit and there was honey 
 to eat with them. For dessert she would fall 
 back on preserved peaches and some left-over 
 fruit cake. It was a queer, hit-or-miss meal, 
 not a company repast in any sense of the word, 
 but the best she could do under the circum- 
 stances. 
 
 It was while the biscuits were browning in 
 the oven, and Aniy was hastily setting the table 
 for four, that her native common-sense re-as- 
 serted itself. "After all," her thoughts ran, 
 "if people take pot luck, they can't expect to 
 find things just as they would be if they were 
 especially invited. They've seemed real 
 friendly and if they like me well enough to stay 
 to a pick-up supper, the first time they've ever 
 set foot in my home, I ought to meet them half 
 way. I can't give them much to eat, but I don't 
 need to be quite as stupid as I've been for the 
 last hour." 
 
 And so it came about that when the guests 
 were summoned to the dining room, they en- 
 countered a very different hostess from the one 
 who had entertained them previously, a hostess
 
 14 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 who twinkled and sparkled and kept them 
 laughing. It seemed to Amy that, when she 
 had removed the soup plates and brought in the 
 sliced meat and creamed potatoes, she had seen 
 an expression of astonishment flicker across 
 Hildegarde's face, but she resolutely put the 
 thought aside and continued to make herself 
 agreeable. The baking-powder biscuits had 
 risen nobly to the occasion. Amy thought 
 them the best she had ever made. And she 
 saw with relief that the bored expression had 
 disappeared from Eobert Carey's face, and 
 that he really seemed to be enjoying himself. 
 
 Then suddenly into the midst of all this 
 gaiety, Hildegarde dropped a bomb in the 
 shape of a question. "What happened to de- 
 tain Isabel?" 
 
 "Isabel?" 
 
 "Yes, Isabel Vincent, you know." 
 
 "I'm afraid," Amy hesitated, "that I don't 
 know any one of that name." 
 
 Apparently the meal had come to a full stop. 
 "Why," Hildegarde cried, "the Isabel Vin- 
 cent who attended the Pelham school when I 
 was there."
 
 WHAT'S IN A NAME? 15 
 
 She was so insistent that Amy uncon- 
 sciously became apologetic. "I'm sorry but I 
 can't say I remember such a girl. Did she 
 ever say she had met me?" 
 
 "Why," Hildegarde almost screamed, 
 "didn't you ask us here to-night to meet her?" 
 
 "To meet Isabei Vincent! Why, I never 
 heard of her." 
 
 "There's some mistake," exclaimed Robert. 
 He had just helped himself to a fifth baking- 
 powder biscuit, but he laid it down unbuttered. 
 "You've made some mistake," he informed his 
 sister. 
 
 Hildegarde ignored him and addressed her- 
 self to Amy. "Didn't you telephone me this 
 morning?" 
 
 "I why, to tell the truth, no I didn't." 
 
 "Then it was a disgusting practical joke. 
 Some one called me up about eleven o 'clock and 
 said she was Amy Lassell, and that Isabel Vin- 
 cent was to stop here twenty-four hours on her 
 way to New. York from her home in Chicago. 
 And then she invited Bob and me to dinner to 
 meet Isabel. There wasn't anything in her 
 manner to give me an idea it was a hoax."
 
 16 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 But Amy had found the clew. "0, did Isa- 
 bel come from Chicago?" she cried. "Then I 
 know. It was Avery Zall who telephoned you. ' ' 
 
 "But I don't know her/' 
 
 "She went away to boarding school yes, it 
 was the Pelham school, I'm sure. And I know 
 she has a friend from Chicago visiting her. 
 Probably the Vincent girl spoke of knowing 
 you, and Avery called you up. 0, dear!" 
 groaned Amy with a sudden change of counte- 
 nance. 
 
 "What's the matter?" demanded Bob Carey, 
 still ignoring his biscuit. 
 
 "I've cheated you out of a regular feast. 
 The Zalls have a wonderful cook. You'd have 
 had broiled chicken and fresh mushrooms and 
 I don't know what beside, and I've given you 
 cold meat and " 
 
 "You've given us the best biscuits I ever 
 ate," said Bob, and buttered his fifth, but his 
 sister had turned pale. 
 
 "I don't believe any one ever did such a 
 dreadful thing before. Here we descended on 
 you without warning and simply forced you to 
 invite us to stay "
 
 WHAT'S IN A NAME? 17 
 
 "Happy escape, I think," said Bob. "If 
 there's anything I hate, it's these social stunts 
 Hildegarde 's crazy about." 
 
 "The only dreadful part," said Amy, reas- 
 suring the distressed Hildegarde, "is that 
 you've exchanged a perfectly gorgeous dinner 
 for a pick-up supper." 
 
 "But what must Miss Miss Zall think of 
 me!" 
 
 "She must know there's some mistake. 
 Probably they 're not waiting dinner any longer, 
 for it's after eight o'clock." 
 
 "0," groaned Hildegarde, "I never was so 
 mortified. What am I going to do ? " 
 
 "It seems to me you'd better finish your sup- 
 per, such as it is," suggested Amy. "And then 
 you can call up Avery Zall and explain your 
 mistake. She'll see that the names sound alike 
 over the phone. And after that there'll be 
 plenty of time to see your friends." 
 
 "Seems to me," suggested Bob, "that as 
 long as we've started the evening here, we 
 might as well put it through." 
 
 His eyes met Amy's with a twinkle that was
 
 18 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 like a spark to tinder. Amy struggled for a 
 moment, then gave way to peals of laughter. 
 
 "0," she gasped, when at length she could 
 find her voice, "What must you have thought 
 of me, inviting you to dinner and then coming 
 down in this old, faded gingham." 
 
 "And what must you have thought of me," 
 Hildegarde cried, "coming at such an hour and 
 calmly taking off my hat." 
 
 "The dust was thick over everything," 
 giggled Amy. "I've been sewing every minute 
 all day long, and I warned father to expect a 
 light meal. ' ' 
 
 "I should have known I had made a mis- 
 take," Hildegarde lamented, "when you never 
 said a word about Isabel. I don't know how 
 I could have been so ridiculously stupid." 
 
 But for all her dismay, she laughed. Indeed 
 if laughter aids digestion, there was little 
 danger that Amy's biscuits would disagree 
 with any one, even Eobert, who had dispatched 
 such an extravagant number. 
 
 While Amy cleared the table and brought in 
 the dessert, Hildegarde went to the phone and 
 explained matters to a young woman whose
 
 WHAT'S IN A NAME? 19 
 
 preliminary stiffness melted as Hildegarde re- 
 viewed the situation. And then Hildegarde 
 hurried back to inform her brother that they 
 must go over as soon as he had finished. "She 
 was as sweet as she could be, but she said 
 they had waited dinner an hour. ' ' 
 
 "So it's up to you to 'gobble and git,' 
 quoted Amy, dishing out the preserves with a 
 lavish hand. 
 
 "I'm not going to be hurried over that fruit 
 cake," declared Bob. "It carries me back to 
 the merry Christmas time." 
 
 "It ought to, for it's a Christmas cake, but 
 it's been kept in a tin box with an apple and I 
 hope it isn't dry. It was all I had in the cake 
 line." Amy paused to laugh again. "I really 
 must stop," she exclaimed, wiping her moist 
 eyes. "They say that laughing at meal-time 
 makes one fat, and I don't dare risk another 
 pound. ' ' 
 
 "Can't have too much of a good thing," de- 
 clared Bob Carey with a significant glance at 
 the flushed face. Strictly speaking, Amy was 
 perhaps the least pretty of the four Friendly 
 Terrace girls ; but good humor has a charin, and
 
 20 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 a face radiant with fun can hold its own against 
 discontented beauty any day. There was 'Such 
 frank admiration in the look the young man 
 bent upon her, that Amy's cheeks grew hot with 
 an unwonted self-consciousness. 
 
 The brother and sister left with evident re- 
 luctance. "Now we've had dinner with you," 
 said Hildegarde, "you must dine with us very 
 soon." 
 
 "Oh, this doesn't deserve to be counted," 
 Amy laughed. "I'll ask you again some day 
 and show you what I can do if I really try." 
 
 "No, don't," pleaded Bob. "Have us again 
 when you're going to have biscuit. It's so 
 much jollier to be informal than to work the 
 society racket. ' ' And then Hildegarde carried 
 him off, protesting that, if they didn't hurry, 
 Avery Zall would not believe a word of her 
 excuse. 
 
 Amy found her father clearing the table. 
 She put on her long apron and joined him, chat- 
 tering excitedly as she worked. 
 
 "No full garbage can to-night, Daddy. Ev- 
 ery dish is scraped clean. I suppose I ought to 
 feel crushed over setting such a meal before
 
 WHAT'S IN A NAME? 21 
 
 people I hardly knew, but somehow I don't." 
 Her father smiling, responsive to her high 
 
 spirits, shook his head. 
 "It isn't much to set good food before folks, 
 
 Amy. Any waiter in a restaurant can do that. 
 
 Give people the best of yourself and you don't 
 
 need to worry about your bill of fare."
 
 CHAPTER n 
 
 A TELEPHONE PAHTY 
 
 HOWEVER much the rest of the year may drag, 
 the spring vacation always ignores the speed 
 limit. What with dress-making and shopping, 
 and going over one's bureau drawers and clos- 
 ets in anticipation of the spring cleaning, and 
 trying to do the things one has been postponing 
 till this week of leisure, and taking advantage 
 of all the pleasures that start up like mush- 
 rooms, twenty-four hours in a day are all too 
 few. When Priscilla dropped in on Peggy to 
 suggest going out into the country for wild 
 flowers, the Monday afternoon that closed the 
 holiday season, Peggy hesitated. 
 
 "I'd love it. I don't feel that spring is 
 really here until I have picked a few violets and 
 spring beauties. But I was thinking of going 
 to see Mary Donaldson." 
 
 "Why, is anything the matter?" Priscilla 
 
 asked. 
 
 22
 
 A TELEPHONE PARTY 23 
 
 Peggy stared. "Matter! You know that since 
 that attack of inflammatory rheumatism she 
 hasn't walked " 
 
 "But I meant anything new." 
 
 "0, there's nothing new, not as far as I 
 know. I haven't been in to see Mary since 
 0, dear, I'm afraid it's been an age." 
 
 "I only meant," explained Priscilla reason- 
 ably, "that if Mary's no worse off than she has 
 been for the last year and a half, there's no 
 especial point in taking to-day to go to see her. 
 You could go any afternoon." 
 
 "I could," owned Peggy with a significant 
 inflection. 
 
 "And it's such a perfect day to go after wild 
 flowers." 
 
 Peggy looked from the window. The blue 
 sky seemed to smile an invitation. Priscilla 's 
 argument all at once appeared unanswerable. 
 
 "Yes, isn't it lovely!" Peggy drew a long 
 breath. "Too lovely to stay indoors. I'll go 
 to see Mary some stormy afternoon when she 
 needs cheering up." 
 
 And now that her decision was made, the 
 thought of Mary Donaldson passed completely
 
 24 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 from Peggy's mind. She had never been par- 
 ticularly intimate with this class-mate, and had 
 it not been for Mary's illness it is unlikely 
 that the two girls would have seen much of each 
 other after high school days. But the winter of 
 Peggy's Freshman year, an attack of rheu- 
 matism had left Mary seriously crippled. 
 Though now she was able to be dressed and to 
 hobble from her bed to a chair by the window, 
 getting downstairs was too difficult a process 
 to be considered, except on very especial oc- 
 casions. With all the yearnings for life and 
 joy that characterize the normal girl, Mary 
 was condemned to vibrate between her bed and 
 chair. 
 
 It was not strange that with all her sym- 
 pathy Peggy had found it difficult to see much 
 of her invalid friend. The demands made by 
 the war upon the scanty leisure of a college 
 student left her little time she could call her 
 own. She had worked making surgical dress- 
 ings under the Red Cross, and had given much 
 time to collecting and mending worn garments 
 for the destitute children of Belgium and 
 France. She had subscribed for a bond in each
 
 A TELEPHONE PARTY 25 
 
 of the Government loans, and to pay for these 
 with her own earnings had required hard work 
 and careful financing. On the whole, though 
 Peggy was sorry not to have seen more of 
 Mary Donaldson, her conscience acquitted her 
 of neglect. 
 
 The season w r as advanced and the girls had 
 no difficulty in filling their baskets with the 
 early arrivals among the wild flowers, and as 
 their baskets filled, they feasted their eyes on 
 the myriad indeterminate shades of a spring 
 landscape, and drank in the exhilarating odors 
 of damp earth, warmed by the April sun. 
 When Peggy's wrist-watch warned them it was 
 time to start for home, they went reluctantly, 
 with an unreasonable feeling that in returning 
 to town they were leaving the spring behind 
 them. 
 
 At their transfer point a sign in a drug store 
 window caught Amy's eye. "Ice cream soda 
 with fresh fruit," she read impressively. "I 
 wondered what it was I wanted. I've lost a 
 pound and a half since vacation began, so I 
 dare to risk one." 
 
 "I haven't been buying sodas, because I
 
 26 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 needed the money for something else," said 
 Peggy. "But this is the last day of vacation 
 and I believe I'll celebrate." 
 
 They filed in and gave their orders. Peggy 
 had just taken the first sip of a ravishing con- 
 coction, whose formula would have given a 
 dyspeptic heart-failure, when at the opposite 
 counter she spied a stout, middle-aged woman 
 who was regarding her with savage intentness. 
 Her features were familiar, in spite of a look 
 of hostility Peggy was not accustomed to see 
 on the faces that looked in her direction. 
 
 For some minutes Peggy was frankly 
 puzzled. Not till she was finishing her soda 
 did she remember where she had seen that 
 heavy, lowering face before. But with the 
 recollection, she slipped from her stool and 
 crossed to the opposite side of the room. 
 
 "I've been trying to think where I've seen 
 you before, but now I remember. You're the 
 Miss Potts who takes care of Mary Donald- 
 son, aren't you!" 
 
 Rather ungraciously Miss Potts admitted her 
 identity. She was not a trained nurse, for in 
 Mary 's case skilled hands were no longer neces-
 
 A TELEPHONE PARTY 27 
 
 sary. Miss Potts was big and strong and kind 
 of heart, though at the moment her expression 
 was far from suggesting the latter character- 
 istic. A little puzzled by the woman 's manner, 
 Peggy continued, "I've been wanting to see 
 Mary for ever so long. How is she f ' ' 
 
 ''Well, she ain't doing very well, and no won- 
 der. Old folks get kind of used to the way 
 things are in this world, and it doesn't surprise 
 'em none to be forgotten. But it's sort of hard 
 on the young. ' ' 
 
 Peggy flushed hotly. She realized that Miss 
 Potts' disagreeable manner was a deliberate 
 expression of resentment. "I'm sorry that I 
 haven't been able to see more of Mary this 
 last year," she said with gentle dignity, "but 
 I've been very busy, and it's such a long way 
 over here." 
 
 "I s'pose it's a long way to your telephone, 
 too." 
 
 "Telephone!" Peggy repeated. She looked 
 at Miss Potts so blankly that Mary's care- 
 taker had no alternative but to explain. 
 
 "Her pa had it put in for a surprise. It's 
 right beside her bed, and the little thing it
 
 28 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 stands on moves 'round, so she can talk with- 
 out any trouble. He thought it would be a 
 comfort to her, for she could chat with all 
 her friends, and sort of keep up with 
 things. ' ' 
 
 ''Why, yes," said Peggy, feeling uncomfor- 
 table. "I should think she'd get lots of fun 
 out of it." She was remembering that Mary 
 had called her up it was weeks or months, or 
 was it fully a year before to tell her about 
 the new telephone. There had been an eager- 
 ness in Mary's voice that she remembered viv- 
 idly. Peggy had agreed that it was "splen- 
 did," without realizing just what this link with 
 the outside world would mean to a girl shut out 
 from so much. 
 
 Miss Potts indulged in an unmusical laugh. 
 "Oh, yes," she said. "She gets lots of fun. 
 Every now and then she gets a call. There's 
 so many new girls on the telephone exchanges 
 nowadays, that they're bound to give her num- 
 ber every little while. And then she tells 'em 
 it 's the wrong number and rings off. ' ' 
 
 Peggy's face was a study. "Do you mean 
 that she that no one "
 
 A TELEPHONE PARTY 29 
 
 The aggressiveness suddenly disappeared 
 from Miss Potts' manner. Her eyes filled with 
 tears. 
 
 ' ' It 's the heart-breakingest thing I ever want 
 to see," she cried. "She was so hopeful at 
 first. As soon as that telephone was put in, she 
 called up everybody she knew, to tell 'em about 
 it. And then she'd lie there smiling, watch- 
 ing that phone, as if it was something out of 
 a fairy book and was going to bring her all 
 kinds of happiness." 
 
 Peggy's imagination was a vivid one. As 
 Miss Potts spoke, she could almost see Mary's 
 smiling, expectant face. A pang of sympathy 
 stabbed her tender heart. 
 
 "The very first time that telephone rang it 
 was somebody that wanted the butcher; and 
 the second time, a girl, who was coming over 
 to spend the afternoon with her, rang up to say 
 her aunt was in town and she was going to the 
 matinee instead. I don't think Mary ever felt 
 the same about her phone after that start-out. 
 When it rang, she looked kind of scared, as if 
 she was afraid she was going to hear something 
 disappointing."
 
 30 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 "But surely," Peggy exclaimed, "she must 
 have lots of calls from her friends. I why, 
 I know I haven't called very often, but that 
 was because I was always hoping to get time 
 to go over to see her." There was such gen- 
 uine distress in her voice that Miss Potts was 
 visibly melted. 
 
 "It's a busy world," she said, "for young 
 folks and old folks, too, and I guess on the 
 whole it's lucky it is so easy for us to forget. 
 But all the same," she ended, with a shake of 
 her head, "it's pretty hard on the ones who 
 get forgotten." 
 
 The clerk brought out the prescription for 
 which Miss Potts had been waiting, and Peggy 
 rejoined her friends. For a moment she con- 
 sidered sending her flowers to Mary, but a fear 
 that to Miss Potts this might seem an effort 
 to evade a more exacting expression of sympa- 
 thy led her to relinquish her purpose. Her 
 crest-fallen manner revealed that something 
 was wrong, and as they left the drug store 
 her friends resentfully demanded an explana- 
 tion. 
 
 "Peggy, what was that woman saying to
 
 A TELEPHONE PARTY 31 
 
 you 1 ' ' Priscilla was bristling like a mother hen 
 who sees one of her brood attacked. 
 
 In a few words Peggy explained. Her 
 three listeners exchanged conscience-stricken 
 glances. 
 
 "It seems rather mean that you should be 
 the one to be scolded," said Amy, "when you 
 have gone to see Mary oftener than all the 
 three of us together.' 7 
 
 "That isn't saying much," Peggy stated 
 gloomily. "I haven't been near her for 
 months. ' ' 
 
 "But you haven't had time," cried Ruth, 
 slipping her hand through her friend's 
 arm. 
 
 "No, I think I really haven't," Peggy said 
 frankly. "But I certainly have had time to go 
 to the telephone." Then suddenly her face 
 brightened. * ' I know what we '11 do, girls ; we '11 
 give her a telephone party." 
 
 "A" telephone party," Amy repeated. 
 "What do you mean by that?" The car for 
 which they were waiting came along before 
 Peggy could answer, and she finished her ex- 
 planation hanging to a strap, while her three
 
 32 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 companions, similarly supported and swaying 
 violently with each jerk of the car, listened ab- 
 sorbedly. 
 
 4 'College opens to-morrow, and the first day 
 is never so very busy, so we'll call Mary up 
 every hour. My hour will be between nine and 
 ten. Priscilla, you take the hour between ten 
 and eleven; and Amy, you can have the next 
 one. I think we'd better omit the hour between 
 twelve and one, for she'll probably be eating 
 luncheon then. Euth, you may call between 
 one and two." 
 
 "But you said every hour, Peggy. Don't 
 you think it would be rather over-doing it to 
 call twice in one day?" 
 
 "I'm going to get hold of some of the other 
 girls who were in Mary's class in high school, 
 Elinor Hewitt, and Anna Joyce, and Blanche 
 Eastabrook " 
 
 "She's in New York." 
 
 "Well, Marian O'Neil isn't. And I'll see 
 Aimee Dubois at college and tell her about it. 
 Mary's telephone is going to work overtime to 
 make up for its long idleness." 
 
 "What I don't understand," said Priscilla,
 
 A TELEPHONE PARTY 33 
 
 "is if Mary was so lonely, why didn't she call 
 us up ? " 
 
 "I can understand that easy enough," replied 
 Peggy. "She called us up to tell us >she had a 
 phone, and after that, it was our move." 
 
 "And I suppose," suggested Amy, "that 
 there isn't a great deal to talk about, when 
 you don't get out of an upstairs room from 
 one month to another." 
 
 "I suppose not," Priscilla acknowledged. 
 Everything considered, it was a rather crest- 
 fallen quartette of girls who returned from 
 their afternoon's outing. 
 
 It was just half past nine next day when 
 Mary Donaldson's telephone rang. "I'm not 
 too early, am I?" said a cheery voice. 
 
 Mary, who had taken up the receiver with 
 the air of uncertainty to which Miss Potts had 
 referred, uttered a joyful exclamation. "Why, 
 it's Peggy Eaymond!" 
 
 "Yes, it's Peggy. I wanted to tell you 
 about something perfectly killing that happened 
 to Amy the other day." Peggy had made up 
 her mind to ignore the months of silence. Ex- 
 planations would not help matters, for nothing
 
 34 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 could explain away the fact that in the whirl and 
 rush of their over-full lives they had, for the 
 time being, quite forgotten Mary. 
 
 The story of Amy 's impromptu dinner party 
 proved as entertaining as Peggy had antici- 
 pated. Mary Donaldson laughed as she had 
 not laughed for months. And in the next room 
 Miss Potts, listening, made strange grimaces 
 that seemed only distantly related to smiles. 
 When the story was finished, Mary had some 
 questions to ask. "Who are the Careys? 
 There used to be a Carey girl in school " 
 
 "I'm pretty sure they aren't related to her. 
 They come from some place in New York and 
 they've lived in our neighborhood less than a 
 year. And do you know, Mary, we think Amy 
 must have made quite an impression on the 
 brother Bob. He's called on her twice since, 
 and he's asked her to go to the Glee Club con- 
 cert." 
 
 "He has!" Romance dies hard in the heart 
 of a girl. Poor Mary, shut away from con- 
 tact with young life, was thrilled by the sugges- 
 tion of an incipient love-story. "Is he nice 
 looking?" she asked eagerly.
 
 A TELEPHONE PARTY 35 
 
 "Well, I've not met him yet, but I've noticed 
 him passing several times, and I thought he 
 was quite handsome. And Hildegarde is an 
 awfully stylish girl, though I'd hardly call her 
 pretty. ' ' 
 
 In ten minutes Peggy announced that she 
 must go to a history lecture and rang off. She 
 was smiling as she went to class, and wishing 
 she could be an unseen listener to the conversa- 
 tions scheduled to take place in Mary's room 
 every hour in the day. 
 
 As Peggy had promised, the bell of Mary's 
 telephone worked over-time. The Friendly 
 Terrace girls were supplemented by former 
 school-mates in sufficient numbers to keep up 
 the excitement till half past eight that evening. 
 Most of the girls, whose memories Peggy had 
 undertaken to jolt, were conscience-stricken 
 when they realized how they had neglected 
 Mary. And they readily fell in with Peggy's 
 suggestion. 
 
 ' ' Even if we can 't get over there very often, ' ' 
 urged Peggy, ' ' we can use the telephone. Five 
 minutes talk every few days will make Mary 
 feel that she's in touch with us still. It doesn't
 
 36 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY" 
 
 seem to me I could bear feeling forgotten." 
 Peggy did not realize that, even with Mary's 
 disability, she would have made herself the cen- 
 ter of some circle ; and in her failure to under- 
 stand that Mary's rather colorless personality 
 was in part responsible for what had happened, 
 Peggy was the more severe upon herself for 
 what now seemed to her inexplicable and inex- 
 cusable neglect. 
 
 Thanks to the sudden activity of Peggy's 
 conscience, Mary Donaldson heard more out- 
 side news in one day than she had heard in the 
 three months previous. And as the trouble 
 with most young people is want of thought, 
 rather than want of heart, few of the girls were 
 satisfied with chatting five or ten minutes over 
 the telephone. They promised to come to see 
 her soon. They offered to lend her books or 
 mail her magazines. One girl suggested that 
 she would bring over some of her victrola 
 records for Mary to hear, and another informed 
 her that as soon as the lilies of the valley were 
 out she should have a cluster. All at once 
 Mary Donaldson's friends were remembering 
 her in earnest.
 
 A TELEPHONE PARTY 37 
 
 When Marian O'Neil rang off at twenty 
 minutes of nine, Mary hesitated a moment and 
 then called Peggy Raymond. And Peggy who 
 was giving her studies that half-hearted atten- 
 tion customary on the first day after vaca- 
 tion, whether the student is in the primary 
 grade or a college Junior, came running down- 
 stairs when Dick shouted her name. 
 
 "Hello Hello Why, Mary!" The pleas- 
 ure in her tone was unmistakable, and the shut- 
 in, two miles away, thrilled responsively. 
 
 "Peggy, I just wanted to tell you before I 
 went to sleep that I've had such a lovely day." 
 
 "Have you, dear? I'm glad. What hap- 
 pened?" 
 
 The question took the guileless Mary aback. 
 "I thought perhaps you knew something about 
 it. My telephone has been ringing all day. It 
 was queer if it was only a coincidence, for 
 some girls called me up that I haven't heard 
 from for years." 
 
 "Must have been what they call a brain 
 wave," suggested Peggy, audaciously. 
 
 "Well, anyway, it was nice. I've heard so 
 many things and talked with so many peo-
 
 38 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 pie that I feel as if I'd been to a party. " 
 "If that's all, Mary, I'll prophesy there'll be 
 
 just as nice days coming as this." 
 
 "Oh, do you think so, Peggy! Well, it's 
 
 my bed time now, so I won't talk any longer. 
 
 Good-night." 
 "Good-night!" And as Peggy hung up the 
 
 receiver, she reflected that she had never done 
 
 justice to the possibilities of the telephone.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 A TRIUMPH OF ART 
 
 IT was one of those warm, summer-like days 
 of early June, when lessons and college 
 classes are forgotten in the enjoyment of 
 thoughts of the summer vacation to come. 
 Such a few days left, and the four girls would 
 be free for all the reading and the tennis and 
 the sewing and the tramping which the press 
 of examination preparation had forced aside. 
 And they would all be together again this sum- 
 mer, which gave promise of many Quartette 
 larks. The day was so perfect that all four had, 
 as if of one mind, discarded their lessons for 
 the remainder of the day, and had drifted over 
 to Amy's. 
 
 "Do you know what I've been thinking about 
 all week?" demanded Amy of the trio occupy- 
 ing her front porch. She did not wait for any 
 of them to hazard a guess, but gave the answer 
 herself, " Strawberries." 
 
 39
 
 40 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 _^^__^^_^___^^__^_^_i 
 
 A soft little murmur went the rounds. "We 
 had strawberries for dinner last night," said 
 Peggy, "the best I've tasted this year." 
 
 "And we had strawberry short-cake." Pris- 
 cilla smacked her lips reminiscently. 
 
 "And I had some strawberry ice cream at 
 Birds'," put in Ruth. "It was so warm along 
 about nine o'clock, you know, and Nelson and 
 I went down. My, but it was good!" 
 
 Amy listened unmoved. "What I've been 
 thinking about," she explained, "is strawber- 
 ries in the patch, sticking their heads out from 
 under the leaves, as if they were begging to be 
 picked, warm from the sun, and sweet, and just 
 spilling over with juice." 
 
 The girls sat attentive. Something in Amy 's 
 manner indicated that there was a background 
 of reality for this flight of fancy. 
 
 "I've got a sort of relation living about ten 
 miles out of town," Amy continued. "Aunt 
 Phoebe Cummings, only that isn't her name. 
 Five years ago she married a man named 
 Frost." 
 
 ' * How interesting to get a new uncle at your 
 age," interjected Euth.
 
 A TRIUMPH OF ART 41 
 
 "I don't regard him as much of an addi- 
 tion to the family," retorted Amy drily. 
 11 When I talk about him, I call him, 'Uncle 
 Philander-Behind-His-Back.' But to his face, 
 he's Mr. Frost. You see, Aunt Phoebe isn't 
 exactly an aunt. I believe she's a second 
 cousin of my grandfather 's first wife, but she 's 
 nicer than lots of real aunts." 
 
 "I do think you have the nicest relations, 
 Amy Lassell." interposed Peggy. "Now Aunt 
 Abigail, at Doolittle cottage, was a perfect 
 dear. ' ' 
 
 Priscilla showed signs of impatience. "What 
 has all this to do with strawberries?" 
 
 "Well, I'm coming to that. My Uncle Phil- 
 ander-Behind-His-Back owns a little farm, and 
 they've got strawberries to burn. And almost 
 every year Aunt Phoebe says she wishes I'd 
 come out when the strawberries are ripe and 
 bring some of my friends." 
 
 "Amy Lassell!" exclaimed Priscilla re- 
 proachfully. "Do you mean that Mrs. Philan- 
 der has been begging you to do this for the 
 last five years, and that this is the first we've 
 heard of it?"
 
 42 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 "Well, as a rule she mentions it along about 
 August, or October, and I forget it by June. 
 But she came in town to shop the other day 
 and took dinner with us, and when she left, 
 she broached the subject again. She said the 
 strawberries would be at their best by the 
 middle of next week and she'd love to meet 
 you all. What -do you think of a trip to the 
 country along about Wednesday?" 
 
 There were certain subjects regarding which, 
 in spite of their devoted friendship, the 
 Friendly Terrace quartette could develop con- 
 siderable diversity of opinion. But on this oc- 
 casion, their unanimity would have gratified 
 the hospitable instincts of Amy's Aunt Phoe- 
 be. Strawberries boxed and displayed in show 
 windows, or even transformed into such delica- 
 cies as short cake and ice cream, seemed pro- 
 saic all at once. What they wanted was to be 
 turned loose in a strawberry patch, to stain 
 their fingers plucking the strawberries from 
 the vines. Before leaving the porch the girls 
 watched Amy pen a note to her relative, ac- 
 cepting her oft-repeated invitation in behalf 
 of herself and friends, and suggesting the fol-
 
 A TRIUMPH OF ART 43 
 
 lowing Wednesday as a desirable time for their 
 visit. 
 
 A rather cloudy Tuesday awakened anxious 
 apprehensions in the minds of the four girls, 
 apprehensions dissipated, however, by the 
 cloudless dawn of Wednesday. The height of 
 the strawberry season is the most charming 
 time of the year. The four ate an early lunch- 
 eon at Peggy's home, and then took the trol- 
 ley for the outskirts of the city. Once outside 
 the city, the trolley car bowled along at an ex- 
 hilarating pace, and in spite of the prospects 
 ahead, the girls were almost sorry when the 
 ten-miles were up, and the breezy ride was 
 ended. 
 
 Aunt Phoebe was a little old lady whose black 
 skirt was quaintly full and showed signs of 
 wear, partially concealed by a white ruffled 
 apron of unusual size. She greeted them as 
 affectionately as if they had all been nieces by 
 adoption, and conducted them indoors to take 
 off their hats. The living room through which 
 they passed was large and pleasantly and im- 
 maculately neat, the unpainted floor having 
 been scrubbed to a milky whiteness.
 
 44 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 The tapping of the girls ' heels on the boards 
 emphasized their bareness. ' * Got your rugs up 
 for the summer, I see," remarked Amy casu- 
 ally. The comment was natural enough under 
 the circumstances, but unluckily it opened the 
 door of the closet which contained the Frosts' 
 family skeleton. Aunt Phoebe reddened as if 
 Amy's innocent remark had been a slap in the 
 face. "My sitting room carpet's worn out," 
 she said. "It was worn out when I came here. 
 I patched it and I pieced it and I made it last 
 a good three years after anybody else would 
 have put it in the rags, and now he says there 's 
 no sense buying a new one." 
 
 "Mr. Frost, you mean?" 
 
 "Yes. He's got awful queer notions, Phil- 
 ander has. He talks about bare floors being 
 healthy. Good gracious! It gives me a chill 
 to think of this room in November without a 
 carpet on the floor. I've done without lots 
 of things in my life, but I never was too poor 
 to have my floors carpeted." 
 
 Amy was sorry she had broached the subject, 
 for now that Aunt Phoebe was started, she 
 seemed to find it difficult to stop talking about
 
 A TRIUMPH OP ART 45 
 
 her grievance. Like many people who do not 
 ask a great deal of life, she was the more insis- 
 tent regarding the few things she counted es- 
 sential. The bare floor, echoing noisily under 
 the tread of her guests, stirred her indigna- 
 tion and almost spoiled her childlike satisfac- 
 tion in entertaining Amy and her friends. 
 
 But worse was coming. It appeared that 
 Aunt Phoebe had a heaped glass dish of berries 
 to be served in the conventional fashion with 
 sugar and cream, but she suggested that first 
 the girls might enjoy helping themselves from 
 the patch. As this was really what they had 
 come for, they acquiesced heartily, and Aunt 
 Phoebe led the way. Her kindly old face lost 
 its pensiveness as she watched the laughing 
 girls picking the berries from the vines, their 
 lips and fingers reddening as the feast pro- 
 ceeded. Then without any warning, a deep 
 voice spoke out of the shrubbery, and only too 
 much to the point. "The commission men," 
 said the voice, "are paying twelve cents a box 
 for them strawberries." 
 
 Four berry-pickers straightened themselves 
 and looked at one another aghast. Aunt
 
 46 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 Phoebe rushed furiously to their defense. 
 "Philander Frost, this is my niece, Amy 
 Lassell, and she's brought out some young 
 friends to eat strawberries, because I asked her 
 to." Her faded blue eyes emitted electric 
 sparks as she defied him. 
 
 "Pleased to meet you, I'm sure," said Mr. 
 Frost, still with an air of profound melancholy. 
 "I don't grudge a few strawberries any more 
 than the next man, but with them bringing 
 twelve cents a box " 
 
 "Philander!" The little wrinkled wife was 
 fairly beside herself with mortification. Her 
 withered skin, suffused by a burning blush, 
 rivalled the vivid coloring of youth. "Phil- 
 ander, I don't care if the strawberries are a 
 dollar a quart " 
 
 "Oh, well," said Mr. Frost patiently. "I 
 just thought I 'd mention it. ' ' He turned away 
 while four girls stood motionless in the straw- 
 berry patch, as if there had been a Medusa-like 
 quality in his gaze, turning them all to stone. 
 
 "Go right on, dearies," commanded Aunt 
 Phoebe, raising her voice defiantly, so that it 
 should reach the ears of her departing lord and
 
 A TRIUMPH OF ART 47 
 
 master. "Eat all you want to." But though 
 as a matter of principle, the girls attempted to 
 obey, the sweetness had gone from the luscious 
 fruit. They ate half-heartedly, ashamed to 
 meet one another's eyes, calculating, in spite of 
 themselves, how much Mr. Frost was out of 
 pocket because of their visit. 
 
 Aunt Phoebe was plainly disappointed when 
 they declared that they had had enough. She 
 tried to encourage them to think better of it, 
 and when they still insisted, led the way to the 
 house. "I don't think much of strawberries 
 without trimmings, myself," she declared over 
 her shoulder. "When you taste them with 
 sugar and cream, I guess you'll find your ap- 
 petites coming back." 
 
 The porch at the side of the house was shaded 
 and inviting. Aunt Phoebe insisted on their 
 seating themselves, while she waited on them. 
 Against the snowy covering of the small, round 
 table, the big dish of choice berries made a fine 
 showing. Then Aunt Phoebe brought out a 
 pitcher of rich yellow cream, and the spirits 
 of the crest-fallen group began to revive. 
 The appearance of a heaping plate-full of
 
 48 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 cookies was hailed with appreciative smiles. 
 
 "Plenty more cookies in the jar," said Aunt 
 Phoebe, helping them with lavish hand. "And 
 plenty more berries. Eat all you can." 
 
 They had almost reached the point of 
 forgetting Mr. Frost and his discomforting 
 comments, when he again made his appearance. 
 Peggy lost the thread of the story she was 
 telling and stopped short, but as no one was 
 listening, that made no difference. 
 
 Mr. Frost seated himself and sighed heavily. 
 "Some folks is afraid to eat too many straw- 
 berries," he said. "They're likely to cause a 
 rash. ' ' 
 
 The girls, not knowing what to say, went on 
 eating mechanically. Aunt Phoebe, however, 
 straightened herself over her saucer. "I don't 
 mind a rash," she announced, "not in such a 
 good cause." 
 
 "It ain't that I care for the expense," Mr. 
 Frost said feelingly, "though of course, with 
 the cost of living so high, sensible folks ought 
 to do without everything that ain't necessary. 
 Now Phoebe's got an idea that she wants a 
 new carpet for the sitting room "
 
 A TRIUMPH OF ART 49 
 
 " I've got an idea that I 'm going to have one, 
 too," said Aunt Phoebe, breathing hard. 
 
 "I tell her that bare floors is all the rage," 
 said Mr. Frost, looking from one to another of 
 the girls, as if he hoped to find an ally in one 
 of them. ''Carpets are hiding-places for all 
 sorts of germs. The swellest folks there is 
 have bare floors nowadays, I tell her." 
 
 ''I guess their bare floors don't look much 
 like mine," exploded Aunt Phoebe, "just com- 
 mon pine boards, not even painted." 
 
 "I wouldn't mind letting you paint 'em," 
 said Mr. Frost. "Of course paint is very ex- 
 pensive these days, but if it would make you 
 feel any better " 
 
 ' ' What I want, ' ' Aunt Phoebe was beginning 
 wrathfully, when Amy interrupted. She ad- 
 dressed herself to Mr. Frost, and her manner 
 was propitiatory. "A painted floor isn't so 
 bad," she said. "Lots of folks have painted 
 floors." 
 
 "A body's feet would freeze in winter," ex- 
 claimed Aunt Phoebe, plainly bewildered at 
 Amy's taking sides against her. 
 
 "You want to wear good thick shoes and
 
 50 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 stockings," replied Mr. Frost, eyeing Amy ap- 
 provingly. His manner indicated that as far 
 as she was concerned, he did not grudge the 
 strawberries. 
 
 "I was going to say," continued Amy, re- 
 turning his friendly gaze with interest, "that 
 I wouldn't mind coming out and painting the 
 floors for you some day." 
 
 The other Friendly Terrace girls looked at 
 one another in surprise. They could not 
 understand Amy. Apparently she was trying 
 to curry favor with Mr. Frost by taking sides 
 with him against Aunt Phoebe, yet none of 
 them considered this the real explanation. 
 Whatever her intention, it was plain that Amy 
 had made a conquest of Uncle Philander-Be- 
 hind-His-Back. For the rest of their stay, he 
 addressed most Ms remarks to her, and though 
 his conversation dealt largely with the high cost 
 of living and the necessity for thrift, their inex- 
 plicable friend seemed highly edified. 
 
 When they took their departure, Mr. Frost 
 again brought up the subject of the floor. "If 
 you should happen to feel like painting it some 
 day"
 
 A TRIUMPH OF ART 51 
 
 "Oh, I'm coming," said Amy smiling up at 
 him. "I'll get the other girls to help me, and 
 we '11 make short work of it. ' ' 
 
 "I think I've got pretty near enough paint 
 left from painting the barn " 
 
 Aunt Phoebe's accession of color suggested 
 an attack of apoplexy, for the barn was the 
 color of a ripe pumpkin. Amy hastily inter- 
 posed, "Oh, I'll bring the paint." 
 
 "Will you now? Well, I call that the right 
 spirit. I like to see young folks appreciative," 
 declared Mr. Frost. "Strawberries are bring- 
 ing a good price this year, but I'm sure you're 
 welcome to every one you et." 
 
 On the way to the car Amy walked beside 
 Aunt Phoebe, holding fast to her arm and chat- 
 tering like a magpie. And as she kissed the old 
 lady good-by, she pulled her close and whis- 
 pered in her ear. It was impossible to know 
 what she said, but Aunt Phoebe's lugubrious 
 countenance showed an immediate improve- 
 ment. She stared at Amy with an expression 
 of incredulity which presently became a be- 
 wildered smile. 
 
 The uncertainty of the other Friendly Ter-
 
 52 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 race girls, as to whether or not Amy had in- 
 tended her promise to be taken literally, was 
 dissipated about a week later when she called 
 on them to accompany her and assist in the 
 painting of Aunt Phoebe's sitting-room floor. 
 Thoughtlessly Amy had selected a date when 
 Peggy had an imperative engagement. Peggy 
 urged her to choose another day, but Amy 
 found insuperable objections to a change. 
 
 "But I don't like this," said Peggy. "I ate 
 as many strawberries as anybody, and if you 're 
 painting the floor to pay your uncle Philander- 
 Behind-His-Back, I want to do my share." 
 And to this, Amy replied imperturbably that 
 she need not worry, for Uncle Philander-Be- 
 hind-His-Back would be paid in full, without 
 her assistance. 
 
 "It really is a pity Peggy couldn't come." 
 The trio was fairly on its way. "She knows 
 more about such work than any of us." 
 
 "I'm afraid Peggy wouldn't be much of a 
 help to-day," replied Amy. 
 
 "Peggy not a help? Why not?*" Pris- 
 cilla's manner indicated that if any criticism of 
 Peggy were implied, she would not stand for it.
 
 A TRIUMPH OF ART 53 
 
 Peggy's conscience is such a Johnny-on- 
 the-spot," Amy explained. "It never seems 
 to take a vacation the way ours do, and I'm 
 afraid it would be dreadfully in the way to- 
 day." 
 
 "Why, what do you mean?" demanded 
 Priscilla and Euth together. 
 
 Amy opened the little grip she carried, pro- 
 duced a small-sized can of paint and handed it 
 to Priscilla. A similar one was bestowed on 
 the perplexed Euth, and then Amy leaned 
 back and looked from one to the other triumph- 
 antly. 
 
 "What do you want me to do with it?" 
 frowned Priscilla. Then with a violent start, 
 "Why, Amy Lassell!'" 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 "This paint is moss green." 
 
 "And this," cried Euth excitedly, "is 
 yellow. ' ' 
 
 "And in here," explained Amy, patting her 
 bag tenderly, "are all the colors of the rain- 
 bow in half pint cans. Did you ever see an ex- 
 hibition of cubist pictures?" 
 
 "Yes, once," repiled Priscilla mechanically,
 
 54 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 while Euth too amazed for words, stared 
 dumbly at her friend. 
 
 "Well, that is the way Aunt Phoebe's floor is 
 going to look when we are through with it." 
 
 "Why, Amy," gasped Ruth, suddenly finding 
 her voice. "You can't do anything like that. 
 He wouldn't let you." 
 
 "He won't be there. I've arranged for 
 Aunt Phoebe to take him off for the day. The 
 key to the house has been left hanging on the 
 back porch." 
 
 "Does she know?" 
 
 "She doesn't, for I thought it was best for 
 her to be able to say she didn't know a thing 
 about it. But she suspects that something's in 
 the wind." 
 
 Priscilla hesitated. "I suppose your idea 
 is" 
 
 "My idea is to make such a looking floor that 
 he will be only too glad to buy a carpet to cover 
 it." 
 
 The three girls looked at one another, and 
 then Euth gave a little nervous giggle. After 
 a minute Priscilla joined in. And then all 
 three leaned back in the seats in a paroxysm of
 
 A TRIUMPH OF ART 55 
 
 silent laughter, while their fellow passengers 
 regarded them enviously. 
 
 "Well, I don't know but you're right about 
 Peggy," admitted Priscilla, at length, wiping 
 her eyes. "I'm pretty sure she would not have 
 approved. ' ' 
 
 "I think it serves him just right," declared 
 Euth. "I detest stingy people." 
 
 It does serve him right," said Amy. "He 
 has plenty of money, but he hates to part with 
 any of it. Poor Aunt Phoebe has a little 
 money of her own, and before she married him 
 she got no end of fun out of doing things for 
 other people. And now the dear old soul can't 
 even treat her friends to strawberries without 
 being humiliated. Anyway," concluded Amy 
 with decision, "I'm bound she shall have a 
 carpet for her living room next winter." 
 
 They found the farm house on the hill silent 
 and deserted, the back door locked, and the key 
 hanging in such plain view that it seemed an 
 invitation to enter. Indoors they found the 
 living room made ready against their coming. 
 All the furniture had been moved into ad- 
 joining rooms and the floor had been given
 
 56 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 an extra and quite unnecessary scrubbing. 
 
 The girls hastily arrayed themselves for the 
 work. Priscilla and Amy had brought along 
 the outfits they had worn as farmerettes, while 
 Ruth donned a worn-out bathing suit. Then 
 Amy pried off the covers of her array of cans, 
 and presented each of her friends with a small 
 paintbrush. The fun began. 
 
 Amy's suggestion that a striking design 
 should be painted in the middle of the room, 
 and at each of the four corners, was enthusias- 
 tically accepted, and Priscilla at once under- 
 took the execution of a Chinese dragon in the 
 corner of the room which was most in evidence 
 to one standing in the doorway. Amy taking 
 possession of the can of yellow paint, set her- 
 self to reproduce a sunrise in the center of the 
 room, the yellow rays radiating from the 
 central golden orb in the most realistic manner. 
 Ruth, her imagination stimulated by the dis- 
 covery of a can of black paint, promptly set 
 about balancing Friscilla's dragon, by a black 
 cat in the opposite corner, its back arched like 
 a bow, and its tail standing upright like an 
 ebony plume.
 
 A TRIUMPH OF ART 57 
 
 They splashed about, admiring one another's 
 work enthusiastically and complacently ac- 
 cepting compliments for their own. And when 
 the various masterpieces had been executed to 
 the satisfaction of the artists, they fell to work 
 filling in the remaining spaces with gaily 
 colored rhomboids, red, yellow, green, black, 
 and purple. Nothing more gorgeous than 
 Aunt Phoebe's painted floor could possibly be 
 imagined. Even the highly colored chrcunos 
 on the wall paled before it. In some re- 
 spects it suggested an old-fashioned crazy-quilt, 
 though when the dragon and the black cat were 
 taken into account, it was more like a bad case 
 of nightmare. After the girls had finished, 
 they withdrew to the next room and, gazing 
 upon it, tried to imagine the sensations of 
 Uncle Philander-Behind-His-Back when its 
 kaleidoscopic magnificence should break upon 
 his astonished gaze. 
 
 Suddenly they were panic-stricken for fear 
 the occupants of the farm house should return 
 before they had taken their departure. They 
 dressed in such haste that they failed to get the 
 full benefit of the bottle of turpentine Amy had
 
 58 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 brought along for cleansing purposes, and they 
 went back to town with green and purple 
 smudges on their fingers. As soon as they 
 had reached home, they descended on Peggy to 
 tell her of the manner in which they had ful- 
 filled Amy's promise, and Peggy listened with 
 amazement tinged with admiration. 
 
 "I'm rather glad you didn't tell me, for I'm 
 afraid I should have thrown cold water, and I 
 can't help thinking it's exactly what Uncle 
 Philander-Behind-His-Back deserves. And if 
 it really drives him into buying a new carpet, 
 I shall feel satisfied that you've done the right 
 thing." 
 
 The four girls had agreed to play tennis 
 Saturday of that week, but early Saturday 
 morning Amy called Peggy up to ask to be ex- 
 cused. "Aunt Phoebe is coming in town for 
 some shopping," she explained, and inter- 
 rupted herself by an ecstatic giggle. "And 
 she wants me to go with her. She wants me to 
 help her select a carpet for the sitting room. ' '
 
 AN AFTERNOON CALL, 
 
 PRISCILLA sat at her little dressing table, 
 studying her reflection in the mirror with an 
 absorbed intentness which would have im- 
 pressed nine observers out of ten as a nai've ex- 
 hibition of vanity. This verdict, however, 
 would have been most unfair. Though many 
 people considered Priscilla a really handsome 
 girl, she had always been inclined to be un- 
 duly modest regarding her personal appear- 
 ance. Her present scrutiny was solely for the 
 purpose of discovering the blemish which she 
 was sure must be apparent to all beholders. 
 
 For a girl of her age, Priscilla had thought 
 very little about the opposite sex. Her devo- 
 tion to Peggy had been a sufficient outlet for 
 her sentiment, while her contempt for those 
 girls who could think and talk of nothing but 
 the "boys" had, perhaps, led her to go need- 
 lessly far in the opposite direction. The 
 
 59
 
 60 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 youths who had fluttered mothlike about the 
 tall, graceful girl had met such a baffling in- 
 difference that they had transferred their at- 
 tentions to some more responsive luminary, 
 while Priscilla went on her way unruffled. 
 
 But this year things were different. The 
 four Friendly Terrace chums were no longer 
 sufficient to themselves. Peggy was engaged. 
 Since Nelson Hallowell's return from the 
 service, he had been a very frequent caller at 
 Ruth's home. And on one or two occasions 
 when Priscilla had run over to Amy's in the 
 evening, she had found one of the porch chairs 
 occupied by Robert Carey. Priscilla began to 
 have a feeling of being left out, new in her ex- 
 perience and most unpleasant. She wondered 
 what there was about her to differentiate her 
 from other girls. She studied her reflection, 
 dreading yet half expecting to see some flaw 
 which would inevitably repel the beholder. 
 
 On this particular afternoon as Priscilla 
 faced herself in the glass and tried to discover 
 the defects that kept admirers at a distance, 
 affairs had reached a crisis. The University 
 Field Day had long been a thrilling occasion to
 
 AN AFTERNOON CALL 61 
 
 many of the young people of the city, not 
 merely because of their interest in the various 
 events, but because it was customary for each 
 of the young fellows who attended to ask some 
 girl to accompany him. Priscilla had taken it 
 for granted that Peggy would go with Graham, 
 and was not surprised to learn that Nelson had 
 been promised the pleasure of Ruth's company 
 on the important occasion. But when she had 
 suggested to Amy that they should go together, 
 and Amy after a moment's hesitation had re- 
 plied, "Why, the fact is, Priscilla, Bob Carey 
 has asked me to go with him," Priscilla was 
 conscious of a distinct shock. Her subsequent 
 dejection had nothing to do with the prospect 
 of missing Field Day. But when she asked 
 herself if she were really the least attractive 
 girl in the world, she could see no escape from 
 an affirmative answer. 
 
 It was while she sat there, heavy-hearted and 
 vaguely resentful, that the maid brought up 
 a card, one of those small, inobtrusive slips of 
 cardboard which proclaim the modesty of the 
 socially inclined male. Priscilla took it, im- 
 pressed in spite of herself. Though she was
 
 62 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 old enough to have become accustomed to such 
 little conventions, the life of a college girl is 
 so necessarily informal that few people who 
 came to see Priscilla announced their presence 
 in this fashion. And this was the first time a 
 young man had sent up his card to Priscilla. 
 
 "Mr. Horace Endicott Hitchcock," read 
 Priscilla, and if the truth be told, she was con- 
 scious of an undefined disappointment. She 
 had known Horace Hitchcock for a dozen years, 
 ever since a smug little boy in a velvet suit, he 
 had attended the children's parties which were 
 her earliest social dissipations. As he was 
 about three years older than Priscilla she had 
 admired him extremely in those days when the 
 velvet suit was much in evidence. But her 
 attitude had altered long before she had con- 
 sidered herself too old to play dolls. 
 
 Horace's boyhood had been a trying period. 
 He had never had a boy friend, the lads of his 
 own age agreeing with contemptuous una- 
 nimity that he was a ' * sissy. ' ' Perhaps for the 
 same reason, the girls had found him as little 
 appealing. But as he neared his majority, 
 Horace had blossomed into a belated popu-
 
 AN AFTERNOON CALL 63 
 
 larity. He was somewhat effeminate as far as 
 his appearance went. He talked very rapidly, 
 and used more gestures than is customary with 
 young Americans. Horace dressed in excellent 
 taste, and was somewhat of an authority on 
 shirts and ties and matters equally important. 
 Although he was supposed to be an insurance 
 solicitor, he was never too occupied to attend 
 any social affair at any hour of the day, and 
 this gave him an advantage over the young men 
 who were on duty till five o'clock or later. 
 Priscilla had seen very little of him since she 
 had entered college, and now as she looked at 
 his card she only wondered if he had come to 
 ask her to play for some entertainment. 
 
 Priscilla gave a last dissatisfied glance at her 
 reflection in the glass, captured a stray lock 
 with a hairpin, and went downstairs. Sensible 
 girl as she was, she found herself impressed 
 by Horace's greeting. He bowed very low 
 over her hand, like the hero of a picture play, 
 and drew up a chair for her with great elegance 
 of manner. To a girl suffering from lack of 
 proper self-esteem, his air of deference was 
 peculiarly soothing. Yet even then, it never
 
 64 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 occurred to Priscilla that this was a social call. 
 She listened to Horace's voluble talk, made 
 such replies as seemed necessary, noted ap- 
 provingly the perfect fit of his light suit, and 
 the fact that his tie matched his silk socks, and 
 waited patiently for him to come to the point. 
 
 Something like twenty minutes had passed 
 when Priscilla reached a realizing sense of the 
 situation. All at once, while Horace was de- 
 scribing minutely the country house where he 
 had spent the previous week-end, Priscilla gave 
 a little start and colored high. It had just 
 dawned upon her that Horace had not come up- 
 on any utilitarian errand, that he was there for 
 the sole purpose of seeing her. It took her a 
 little time to adjust herself to the novel idea, 
 and if Horace had asked her a point-blank 
 question during the interval, she would not 
 have known whether to answer yes or no, for 
 she had not the least idea what he was talking 
 about. 
 
 Then Priscilla waked up. She exerted her- 
 self to be charming. She talked almost as 
 fluently as Horace himself. She laughed de- 
 lightedly at his little jests ; though, if the truth
 
 AN AFTERNOON CALL 65 
 
 be told, Horace's humor was decidedly anemic. 
 She listened raptly to his stories of his achieve- 
 ments, and was ready with the expected 
 admiring smile when the time arrived. A 
 curious sense of unreality possessed her. She 
 felt as if she were taking part in an exciting 
 game. 
 
 "Miss Priscilla," said Horace suddenly, 
 "are you at all interested in Field Day?" 
 
 "It's not so bad when one knows the men," 
 Priscilla replied, and the answer showed the 
 effect of Horace 's influence in a little over half 
 an hour. For Priscilla adored Field Day. 
 When she watched the various events her heart 
 pounded as if she herself were taking part in 
 the hundred yard dash. At the close of an 
 exciting race, she had often found herself on 
 her feet, shrieking spasmodically, and waving 
 her handkerchief, and feeling the smart of 
 tears in her strained eyes. But instinctively 
 Priscilla knew that Horace would not consider 
 Field Day a legitimate cause for excitement, 
 and so she answered as she did. 
 
 "Sometimes I find it a deuce of a bore," 
 Horace said. "The crowd and the noise, don't
 
 66 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 you know. But if you are willing to ac- 
 company me next Friday, Miss Priscilla, I'm 
 sure this Field Day will prove a delightful ex- 
 ception. ' ' 
 
 "Oh, thank you," Priscilla said carelessly. 
 "I should enjoy going very much." Her non- 
 chalant acceptance of the invitation gave no 
 idea of her tumultuous excitement. She was 
 no longer the odd one of the quartette of 
 chums. She was no longer left out. Her 
 misgivings regarding herself were instanta- 
 neously set at rest, for she knew that, had she 
 been as unattractive as she had feared, Horace 
 Hitchcock would never have invited her to 
 accompany him on such an occasion. Her 
 pulses throbbed, and there was a humming in 
 her ears as she chattered on without any clear 
 idea of what she was saying. 
 
 Priscilla 's feeling of elation had nothing to 
 do with Horace's personality. Had he been 
 any other young man, equally well dressed and 
 well mannered, she would have felt exactly the 
 same. Yet under the circumstances she ex- 
 perienced a not unreasonable sense of grati- 
 tude. She shut her eyes to the little affecta-
 
 AN AFTERNOON CALL 67 
 
 tions of manner which ordinarily she would 
 have found amusing. She refused to acknowl- 
 edge to herself that Horace was bragging. 
 She had never liked him, and the Horace who 
 had invited her to the Field Day exercises was 
 in all essentials the Horace of the velvet suit; 
 yet now, if she had heard him criticized, she 
 would have rushed impetuously to his defense. 
 In short, Priscilla was started on a course 
 which many an older and wiser woman has 
 followed to disaster. 
 
 Priscilla was in no hurry to mention the 
 fact that she expected to be a spectator of the 
 Field Day events. The very intensity of her 
 previous qualms made her the more inclined to 
 treat the present situation nonchalantly. On 
 Thursday evening, however, she remarked 
 casually to Peggy that she hoped their seats 
 would not be too far separated. Peggy looked 
 up in pleased surprise. 
 
 "Are you going, Priscilla? I'm awful glad. 
 Who 's taking you f ' ' 
 
 "Horace Hitchcock." 
 
 "Horace Hitchcock!" Peggy repeated the 
 name in such accents of astonishment that
 
 68 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 Priscilla flushed. ''Why not!" she asked 
 rather coldly. 
 
 "I didn't know you saw anything of him." 
 "I've known him as long as I've known you 
 almost as long as I've known anybody." 
 
 "Why, of course, Priscilla. I remember 
 when we used to see him at parties in a 
 Fauntleroy suit. But I've lost track of him 
 for an age and I thought you had, too, that's 
 all." There was an underlying astonishment 
 in Peggy's apology. She could not understand 
 Priscilla 's seeming readiness to take offense. 
 And when Priscilla began to talk of something 
 quite different, Peggy realized with fresh 
 amazement that the peculiarities >of Horace 
 Hitchcock were, for the present, a tabooed 
 topic between them.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE RUMMAGE SALE 
 
 SUMMER vacation! Although, the Field Day 
 exercises, and the few Commencement festivi- 
 ties to which undergraduates are invited, were 
 only four days past, classes and lessons seemed 
 to the Quartet never to have existed; or if so, 
 only in a dream. And it would be the same 
 way when college began again in the fall. 
 Summer, of a few days before, would be a dim 
 memory of the past. 
 
 Though they had not heard from their ex- 
 aminations, they all felt reasonably confident of 
 having passed successfully. At any rate, they 
 had put the thought of them resolutely out of 
 mind, following Peggy's, "one thing at a time, 
 and when it's done, it doesn't do any good 
 worrying about it. ' ' Those four days had been 
 devoted to concentrated doing nothing. 
 
 * ' * DULCE FAR NIENTE ' is such a pretty phrase 
 it makes a virtue of loafing," said Priscilla. 
 
 69
 
 70 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 And to this, for the time being, the other 
 three agreed. 
 
 It was indirectly through Horace Hitchcock 
 that the Friendly Terrace girls became 
 interested in the Rummage Sale. For at the 
 Field Day exercises Horace and Priscilla had 
 Happened to occupy seats in the Grand Stand 
 next to Mrs. Sidney Vanderpool, and Horace, 
 who seemed a prime favorite with that 
 influential lady, had introduced Priscilla. 
 Mrs. Vanderpool was in charge of a rummage 
 sale to be held for the benefit of a local charity, 
 and recognizing Priscilla 's efficiency at a 
 glance, she had promptly enlisted her under 
 her banner. Since whatever concerned one of 
 the Friendly Terrace quartette concerned 
 all, Mrs. Vanderpool in securing Priscilla 's 
 cooperation had gained four new assis- 
 tants. 
 
 It was Peggy, strange to say, whose 
 enthusiasm it was hardest to kindle. " Some- 
 how I never thought much of rummage sales," 
 she owned. "Perhaps it is because rummage 
 always reminds me of rubbish." 
 
 1 'But that's not fair, Peggy," Priscilla re-
 
 THE RUMMAGE SALE 71 
 
 monstrated. " Every family has a lot of 
 things packed away that would be a blessing to 
 people a little poorer." 
 
 Peggy reflected. "I can't think of anything 
 we could spare that would be much of a bless- 
 ing to any one." 
 
 "You haven't looked your things over with 
 that thought in mind. Take Mrs. Vander- 
 pool, for instance. Why, she'd discard a piece 
 of furniture we would be proud to put in the 
 parlor. A chair or 'sofa we'd think too shabby 
 to have around would seem magnificent to your 
 friends, the Bonds." 
 
 "I suppose there's something in that," 
 owned Peggy. 
 
 "Of course there is. Thanks to the rum- 
 mage sales, people get rid of a lot of stuff 
 that's no further good to them; and other 
 people get a great many things that they can 
 use, and pay almost nothing for them." 
 
 "If they pay so little, why does Mrs. Van- 
 derpool expect to make such a lot of money?" 
 demanded Peggy. 
 
 "Look at the five-and-ten cent stores. Little 
 profits count up, if you make sales enough.
 
 72 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 And in a rummage sale the expenses are so 
 small that almost everything is profit." 
 
 Peggy began to think that her prejudice had 
 been unreasonable, and she hunted the house 
 over to find something worth contributing. 
 But her search was far from satisfactory to 
 herself. Mrs. Eaymond was not one of the 
 house-keepers who make a practice of hoarding 
 useless articles. If a piece of furniture broke 
 down, she had it mended if it were worth re- 
 pairing; if not, she either gave it to some 
 poor family who could make use of it, or else 
 had it carted away by the rubbish collector. 
 When Peggy's exhaustive search ended, she 
 had succeeded in collecting for the sale only a 
 few pieces of crockery and a carpet-sweeper 
 which had outlived its halcyon days, though 
 still capable of picking threads off the carpet. 
 
 The sale was to be held in a large vacant 
 store in the down-town district, and was to 
 last three days. All contributors had been 
 asked to send their offerings several days in 
 advance, and the Friendly Terrace girls, with 
 a score of others, were on hand to assist in 
 classifying the articles as they arrived, and
 
 THE RUMMAGE SALE 73 
 
 were arranging them so as to make the best 
 possible showing. As Peggy worked with the 
 others, she was conscious of a return of her 
 former misgivings. Undoubtedly among the 
 contributions arriving by the wagon load there 
 were many articles which would be useful to 
 some one, but Peggy wondered who would be 
 able to make use of the cracked pitchers and 
 leaky kitchen utensils which were coming in 
 such quantities. She looked disapprovingly at 
 the loads of worn-out finery, displayed on the 
 clothing table. In her opinion people who 
 would buy second-hand evening dresses ought 
 not to afford any. Of the flimsy evening 
 frocks, most of them cut excessively low, some 
 were spotted and soiled, while others were torn 
 and generally bedraggled. Peggy made up her 
 mind that under no circumstances would she be 
 a saleswoman at that table. 
 
 The array of bric-a-brac aroused similar 
 qualms. Looking the collection over, Peggy 
 wondered at the things people had once re- 
 garded as ornamental. And even though they 
 now realized their error, and were glad to rid 
 themselves of these offenses against good taste,
 
 74 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 it seemed to Peggy rather hard that they 
 should encourage the unenlightened to pur- 
 chase such monstrosities under the mistaken 
 notion that they were beautifying their homes. 
 She was glad to turn to the book table where, 
 if nowhere else, really worth-while bargains 
 were offered. There were piles of the best 
 magazines, many of them with the leaves un- 
 cut. There were odd volumes l of classic 
 writers, the most of which seemed in excellent 
 condition. Peggy set herself to make the book 
 table as inviting as possible, in hopes that the 
 sales would be gratifying. 
 
 But while her original misgivings had re- 
 turned in full force, Peggy said nothing about 
 them. As far as she could see, they were un- 
 shared by any person present. The three girls 
 who were her most intimate friends were work- 
 ing away enthusiastically, their bright faces un- 
 clouded by a doubt. Peggy had been a little 
 startled by the discovery that Amy had delib- 
 erately left her out of the plot for painting 
 Aunt Phosbe's sitting-room floor. It led her 
 to wonder if perhaps she was over-particular. 
 
 * ' No one else seems to see anything out of the
 
 THE RUMMAGE SALE 75 
 
 way, ' ' Peggy reflected. * * It seems as if it must 
 be all right, if I'm the only one who thinks it 
 isn't. Oh, dear, I hope I'm not getting so crit- 
 ical and fussy that I imagine that things are 
 wrong when they 're not. ' ' Again her thoughts 
 turned to Aunt Phoebe's painted floor. If Amy 
 had asked her cooperation, she would have re- 
 fused, and would have done her best to dis- 
 suade Amy from her reckless scheme. But the 
 results had been all that could be desired. 
 Aunt Phoebe had her new carpet, and was ra- 
 diantly happy, while Uncle Philander-BehincT- 
 His-Back had undoubtedly been taught a lesson 
 he sorely needed. Strange to say, he did not 
 seem to hold any grudge against Amy for tak- 
 ing sides against him. Amy, who had been out 
 to admire the new carpet, reported that he had 
 received her without any display of animosity, 
 and unprotestingly had allowed Aunt Phoebe to 
 serve her with ice cream. "It must be that 
 I'm getting too particular," thought Peggy. 
 "This time I won't say a word." 
 
 She broke her resolution, however, when the 
 committee, who had been delegated to mark the 
 prices of each article, set to work. Peggy had
 
 76 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 comforted herself by recalling Priscilla's 
 assurance that everything would be sold at 
 prices almost too small to mention. Instead, 
 it seemed to the astonished Peggy that a good 
 price was set on articles which from her stand- 
 point were quite valueless. "0, don't you 
 think that is too much?" She could not help ex- 
 claiming as one of the committee attached a 
 price card to a three legged chair, which kept 
 an upright position only by balancing itself 
 against a rickety table. 
 
 The lady smiled upon her. "We'll have the 
 prices rather high the first day," she replied. 
 ' ' Of course we want to make all we can. Then 
 we'll reduce them for the second day, and on 
 the third we '11 take anything we can get. ' ' 
 
 Peggy did not return the smile. She was 
 perplexed and troubled. She was beginning to 
 realize that though these women were working 
 for charity, they knew very little about the 
 practical problems of the poor. She looked at 
 the three-legged chair and wondered what she 
 would do if she saw some reckless mother of a 
 family preparing to squander real money on 
 anything so worthless.
 
 THE RUMMAGE SALE 77 
 
 Although Peggy had expressed a wish to be 
 stationed at the book table, Mrs. Vanderpool 
 had insisted on placing her among the house- 
 hold furnishings. "You've got such a win- 
 ning way, my dear," she said, "and you would 
 be wasted on the books. Nobody buys books 
 at a rummage sale except the people who would 
 buy them anyway. I'm expecting great things 
 from that persuasive tongue of yours." 
 Peggy blushed guiltily, even while she smiled. 
 She was glad Mrs. Vanderpool had such a com- 
 plimentary idea of her persuasive powers and 
 hoped she would not disappoint her. 
 
 From the hour of its opening, the rummage 
 sale was crowded. Peggy's heart went out to 
 the women who came pouring in as soon as the 
 doors were opened to the public. Many of 
 them had a distinctly foreign look. They came 
 hatless, holding their money tightly, and look- 
 ing about them with sharp, dark eyes in search 
 of the bargains they coveted. In the evening 
 the shop girls and factory workers were out in 
 full force, and Peggy noticed uneasily how 
 inevitably they gravitated toward the cast-off 
 finery which had aroused her disapproval.
 
 78 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 She turned her back that she might not be a 
 witness to the thriving business she suspected 
 that department of doing. 
 
 But resolving to allow events to take their 
 course without a protest, Peggy had failed to 
 reckon with her 'inborn inability to shirk re- 
 sponsibility. The formula which acts as a 
 sedative to so many consciences, "It's none of 
 my business, " had never proved effective in 
 her case. And though she stuck to her resolu- 
 tion on the first day, the developments of the 
 second proved too much for her. It was late 
 on that afternoon when she noticed a flutter at 
 one of the adjacent counters, and discovered 
 to her astonishment, that the occasion of the 
 excitement was an acquaintance of her own, 
 no other than the husband of Elvira Bond. 
 
 Peggy had always felt a certain responsibility 
 for Elvira, due to the fact that she had known 
 the good-natured, slatternly girl ever since she 
 could remember. Mrs. Bond had done the 
 Raymonds ' washing, off and on for many years, 
 less because of her excellence as a laundress, 
 than because she needed the work. Then 
 Elvira had grown up, and taken her mother's
 
 THE RUMMAGE SALE 79 
 
 place at the wash-tubs. The year of America's 
 entry into the war she had unexpectedly 
 married a young man considerably above her 
 in the social scale, who had immediately been 
 called to the colors. 
 
 Elvira's romance had been her awakening. 
 To Peggy's attentive ear she had confided her 
 dawning aspirations. "Joe likes things neat 
 and clean, ' ' she explained, a little wistf ulness in 
 her voice. "Not cluttered up the way Ma 
 keeps 'em. And I'd hate to make him ashamed 
 of me." 
 
 "Of course you would," Peggy had cried. 
 "And there's not a bit of need, Elvira. Why, 
 of course you can keep your house as nice as 
 anybody's. All you've got to do is to make up 
 your mind that you will." 
 
 In the absence of the young husband Peggy 
 had a watchful eye on Elvira. She had done 
 her best to keep alive the girl 's newly awakened 
 ambitions, in spite of the discouraging home 
 atmosphere. And after Joe's return she had 
 frequently gone to see Elvira in the little home 
 the young couple had purchased, and were pay- 
 ing for on the installment plan. In view of the
 
 80 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 girl's bringing up, it is hardly surprising that 
 she had her relapses ; but on the whole, Peggy 
 was proud of her. Elvira worked hard, was 
 developing a commendable thrift, and was ex- 
 tremely proud of her little home and of her 
 baby. 
 
 It was at one of the bric-a-brac tables that 
 Peggy discovered Elvira's husband, and he 
 seemed, as far as she could judge from his 
 manner and the manner of the women who 
 were calling his attention to one thing after 
 another, on the point of investing largely in the 
 heterogeneous collection. But he happened to 
 look over his shoulder in Peggy's direction, 
 recognized her instantly, and came toward her, 
 his face irradiated by a broad smile. 
 
 "Afternoon, Miss Peggy," he exclaimed. 
 "I'm looking around. I'm thinking of buying 
 a few little things to take home to the wife." 
 He slapped his pocket. "It's pay-day, Miss 
 Peggy, and the best ain't none too good for 
 Elvira and the kid, I'll swear it ain't." 
 
 Peggy looked at him silently. It was the 
 era of prohibition, yet an unmistakable odor 
 radiated from Joe's person and confirmed the
 
 THE RUMMAGE SALE 81 
 
 suspicion aroused by his unnatural manner. 
 Peggy's heart sank. 
 
 All unconscious of her dismay, Joe was ex- 
 amining her stock. "What's that, Miss 
 Peggy?" He indicated by a gesture the 
 object which had aroused his interest. 
 
 "That is a churn, Joe." 
 
 "Fine! Fine! I've been wanting a churn 
 ever since I got married. What 's the damage T ' ' 
 
 "But you can't want a churn, Joe; you don't 
 keep a cow. ' ' 
 
 "No telling, Miss Peggy, I might buy a cow 
 'most any day." But his vacillating attention 
 went to a battered table and he gave it a seem- 
 ingly close examination. "I'll take it, Miss 
 Peggy," he declared with a wave of his hand, 
 "Just the thing for our front room." 
 
 "Why, Joe, Elvira has a table for the front 
 room already." 
 
 "Can't have too much of a good thing, you 
 know," grinned Joe. "Say I like the looks of 
 that." Peggy's eyes followed his extended 
 finger and she frowned. "Why, Joe, that's a 
 coffee urn, and it wouldn't be suitable for a 
 small family. Besides, it leaks."
 
 82 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 "I'm bound to take home something, Miss 
 Peggy," snickered Joe. " Nothing small about 
 me. My pockets are pretty well lined, and 
 you'll find me a good customer." 
 
 "Joe," said Peggy desperately, " Listen to 
 me. You don't want any of this stuff in your 
 pretty little home. It's not good enough." 
 
 "I guess I know what I want." 
 
 "No, Joe. You must excuse me, but to-day 
 you don't know what you want. If you were 
 quite yourself you'd never think of taking 
 Elvira home a rickety table or a churn." 
 
 "You mean to tell me that I'm drunk." 
 Joe's manner had lost its suavity. His eyes 
 flashed as he regarded her. 
 
 "No, Joe, you're not drunk, but you've been 
 drinking and you're not yourself. And I 
 know by to-morrow you '11 feel awfully sorry if 
 you have carried a lot of rubbish into your dear 
 little home." 
 
 For a moment Joe wavered between amia- 
 bility and anger. His masculine pride was 
 touched by the implication that he did not know 
 his own mind, and alcohol had quickened his 
 propensity to take offense. But on the other
 
 THE RUMMAGE SALE 83 
 
 hand, there was something disarming in the 
 way Peggy spoke of his wife and his home, and 
 her smile was appealing. Mrs. Vanderpool 
 had counted on her winning way and it was as 
 effective as she had hoped, though Peggy did 
 not apply it exactly as she had expected of her. 
 
 After a moment 's hesitation, Joe capitulated. 
 "I guess you're right, Miss Peggy. When a 
 fellow's had a few drinks, most anything looks 
 like a bargain. Guess this is a lot of junk." 
 
 "There's nothing here that you and Elvira 
 want, I'm sure of that, Joe." 
 
 "Good-by, Miss Peggy." 
 
 "Good-by, Joe. Tell Elvira I'll be over to 
 see her very soon." 
 
 Peggy drew a breath of relief when she saw 
 Joe leave the building. But her congratu- 
 latory mood was not to last. For not long 
 after Joe's departure, she became aware of 
 Mrs. Vanderpool at her elbow. 
 
 "Well, you had a profitable customer at 
 last," smiled the lady. "Wanted to buy you 
 out, didn't he I" 
 
 The possibility of evasion did not occur to 
 Peggy. She lifted her frank eyes. "He
 
 84 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 talked about buying a lot of useless things," 
 she answered, "but of course I wouldn't let him. 
 You see, he'd been drinking and he didn't 
 really know what he wanted. And besides, I 
 know his wife." 
 
 The blank expression with which Mrs. Van- 
 derpool regarded her made plain the impos- 
 sibility of their ever coming to an understand- 
 ing. Peggy started to go on, and then lapsed 
 into silence, realizing the uselessness of further 
 explanations. Mrs. Vanderpool having re- 
 lieved her mind by a long stare, turned 
 majestically away, and Peggy heard her a little 
 later, talking animatedly of some one who, it 
 appeared, was totally lacking in the business in- 
 stinct. Peggy thought she could come very 
 near guessing the identity of the person re- 
 ferred to. But as she went on pointing out to 
 possible purchasers the flaws in her wares, she 
 made up her mind that the chance of being 
 over-particular in matters of right and wrong 
 was very trifling compared with the danger of 
 not being particular enough.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 PRISCILLA HAS A SECRET 
 
 PEGGY was worried about Priscilla. For the 
 first time in their years of intimacy she could 
 not understand her friend ; and worst of all, it 
 seemed out of the question to discuss the situa- 
 tion and come to an understanding. 
 
 "Do you think she can like him?" Peggy 
 asked the other Friendly Terrace girls des- 
 pairingly. "Because he's always seemed to 
 me almost a joke. I don't know how I could 
 bear to have Priscilla fall in love with a man I 
 wanted to laugh at." 
 
 Though both girls would have been glad to 
 reassure her, an ominous silence followed her 
 outbreak. "There's no accounting for tastes," 
 said Ruth at length, a suggestion of superiority 
 in her tone. 
 
 "Priscilla ought to have a good talking 
 to," exclaimed Amy. "She's got plenty of 
 sense, and to think of her letting Horace Hitch- 
 
 85
 
 86 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 cock hang around! I'd like to tell her 
 
 "You mustn't, Amy," Peggy interrupted. 
 "It would never do to let her know how you 
 feel about it. That's one of the things that 
 make me so anxious she's so awfully touchy 
 on the subject of Horace. She won't have him 
 criticized. ' ' 
 
 Peggy had valiantly done her best to culti- 
 vate a liking for Horace Hitchcock. Since the 
 fatal Field Day when he had acted as Priscilla's 
 escort, his attentions had been unremitting. 
 He had called several times a week. He had 
 brought Priscilla flowers and boxes of candy, to 
 say nothing of books of poems, from which he 
 had read aloud to her by the hour. Peggy, 
 assuming that since Priscilla was seeing so 
 much of Horace, he must be quite a different 
 person from what she supposed, had invited 
 him to her home along with the others of her 
 little circle, only to find it would not do. 
 Horace and the others would not mix any more 
 'than oil and water. 
 
 "For Heaven's sake, don't ask that Hitch- 
 cock here again," Graham implored Peggy, 
 after an evening that had been a failure,
 
 PRISCILLA HAS A SECRET 87 
 
 socially considered. "He puts on airs as if 
 he were the Prince of Wales no, that's not 
 fair to the prince. But Hitchcock is a snob and 
 a sissy and he makes me tired. " 
 
 "But if Priscilla likes him, Graham " 
 "She can't," Graham had argued, not un- 
 reasonably. "She must see through him just 
 as the rest of us do; and even while she's so 
 pleasant to him, she must be laughing in her 
 sleeve. ' ' 
 
 But reasonable as Graham's stand had 
 seemed, Priscilla was in no mood to laugh at 
 Horace Hitchcock. Indeed, she was deliber- 
 ately shutting her eyes to his weaknesses, and 
 holding before herself such an idealized like- 
 ness of the real Horace that no one but herself 
 would have recognized it. Horace's attentions 
 flattered her vanity. Every call helped to re- 
 assure her anxiety in the matter of her own 
 attractiveness. Moreover, Priscilla was a 
 little dazzled by Horace's seeming familiarity 
 with the people whose names were chronicled 
 in the society columns of the daily paper. She 
 had seen for herself that Mrs. Sidney Vander- 
 pool regarded him with favor, and Horace had
 
 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 been at some pains to let her know that other 
 ladies, some of them young and beautiful, held 
 him in equally high esteem. That he should 
 leave girls, who could not go to New York for a 
 week without the fact brought to the public at- 
 tention in the daily papers, in order that he 
 might spend his evenings with her, gave 
 Priscilla an intoxicating sense of power. 
 
 But foolish as this all was, worse was to 
 come, and all because Amy disregarded Peggy's 
 prudent counsel. Peggy had discovered an 
 undue sensitiveness in Priscilla, where Horace 
 was concerned, and had been sensible enough 
 to perceive that any criticism of her ardent 
 admirer, instead of prejudicing Priscilla 
 against him, was likely to have the opposite 
 effect. It hardly need be said that Amy did not 
 flout Peggy 's advice, but in the course of a con- 
 versation with Priscilla she lost her temper 
 and subsequently her head. 
 
 It began with a most amiable intention on 
 Amy's part. "Is Horace coming up to-night I '' 
 she asked Priscilla, as the two strolled along 
 the Terrace in the hazy hush of a summer after- 
 noon.
 
 PRISCILLA HAS A SECRET 89 
 
 "I I shouldn't be surprised to see him," 
 owned Priscilla, with a becoming blush. 
 
 "Bob telephoned me this- morning that he'd 
 be up. If Horace comes, bring him over and 
 I'll try to get Peggy and Euth " 
 
 " Shall you ask Nelson Hallowell?" Priscilla 
 inquired, a reservation in her tone which Amy 
 did not understand. 
 
 "I'll tell Ruth to bring him if he comes, and 
 he's pretty sure to be on hand," laughed Amy. 
 "He's making up for the chances he missed 
 when he was in the service." 
 
 "Then I'm afraid we can't come," said 
 Priscilla. "Horace thinks Bob Carey is fine, 
 and he rather likes Graham, but he draws the 
 line at Nelson." 
 
 Amy stopped short, her plump face crimson. 
 "Please tell me what you mean by his drawing 
 the line?" 
 
 "Well, Amy, Pve no doubt that Nelson -is a 
 very fine fellow, as far as morals go, but his 
 social position, you know " 
 
 "What about it?" As the two girls were 
 standing side by side, it was quite unneces- 
 sary for Amy to speak so loudly. Her defiant
 
 90 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 tone seemed to challenge the entire block. 
 
 "Hush, Amy. I'm not deaf. Of course 
 Nelson comes from quite an ordinary family, 
 and he's only a clerk, and Horace really doesn't 
 care to meet him socially. ' ' 
 
 Amy burst into an angry laugh. "Horace 
 Hitchcock said that. What a joke!" 
 
 "I don't quite understand you, Amy." 
 Priscilla spoke with extreme frigidity. 
 
 "Why, there's enough in Nelson Hallowell's 
 little finger to make several Horaces. To think 
 of that dandified little manikin 's turning up his 
 nose at a fellow like Nelson." 
 
 "Amy Lassell, how dare you?" 
 
 "Oh, fudge, Priscilla, you know perfectly 
 well what Horace Hitchcock is, and you needn't 
 pretend to admire him, for I know better." 
 
 "I won't listen to you any longer," cried 
 Priscilla furiously, "slandering my friends." 
 She turned abruptly and crossed the street. 
 The two girls continued on their homeward 
 way with the width of the Terrace between 
 them, each looking steadily ahead, ignoring the 
 other's presence. 
 
 Before Amy reached home she was sorry.
 
 PRISCILLA HAS A SECRET 91 
 
 She saw she had been wrong as well as right. 
 Her whole-hearted championship of Nelson had 
 not necessitated sneering at Horace. Amy 
 realized that Priscilla had good reason to be 
 angry, and resolved on a whole-hearted apology 
 next day. 
 
 It was a pity she had not followed up her 
 feeling of penitence by immediate action, for 
 when Horace came that evening he found 
 Priscilla in an unwonted mood. She had 
 dramatized the whole affair to herself. Every- 
 one was unjust to Horace. Even Peggy 
 allowed her childish prejudices to influence her 
 unwarrantedly. But she herself was Horace's 
 friend and she would be loyal to that friend- 
 ship, cost what it might. 
 
 A few minutes after his arrival Horace 
 suggested a walk in the neighboring park, 
 which had been so little "improved" that 
 walking through it was almost like stroll- 
 ing along country lanes. Though the night 
 was warm, most of the populace preferred the 
 movies, and Horace and Priscilla had the 
 park practically to themselves. The night 
 wind sighed languorously through the trees.
 
 92 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 The air was full of ineffable fragrances. 
 
 "Oh, Priscilla," exclaimed Horace suddenly, 
 and caught her hand. It seemed to Priscilla 
 that her heart stood still. There was a note in 
 Horace's voice she had never heard before. 
 She was sure that something wonderful was 
 happening. And the irritating part was that 
 she could not do justice to it, for she kept 
 thinking of something else. She should, she 
 was sure, be entirely absorbed in what Horace 
 was going to say ; and right at that moment, she 
 wondered if Euth and Nelson were sitting on 
 Amy's porch. 
 
 "Oh, Priscilla," Horace was murmuring, 
 ' * Do you not feel as I do, that we have met and 
 loved before? You were mine, Priscilla, when 
 the pyramids were building. You were mine 
 in Babylon. Tell me that you have not 
 forgotten. Tell me that you love me. ' ' 
 
 It was only about half an hour from that 
 impassioned speech before they were walking 
 home decorously along the lighted streets, but 
 Priscilla had a feeling as if she had been away 
 for months and months. An unbelievable thing 
 had happened. She was engaged. It was un-
 
 PRISCILLA HAS A SECRET 93 
 
 derstood that the engagement was not to be 
 mentioned at present, not even to Priscilla's 
 father and mother. Horace had said some- 
 thing to the effect that to let outsiders into 
 their secret would bruise the petals of the 
 flower of love, and she had agreed to the post- 
 ponement of that catastrophe, without asking 
 herself why the flower of love should be so 
 fragile. But the fact remained that she was 
 the second of the quartette to become engaged, 
 and she took a rather foolish satisfaction in 
 the realization. She made up her mind that 
 her former qualms as to her own unattractive- 
 ness were without foundation, for otherwise 
 a social favorite like Horace would never have 
 asked her to marry him. 
 
 Priscilla's father and mother were on the 
 porch when the young people reached home, 
 and, as it was much too warm to stay indoors, 
 the evening which had contained so thrilling 
 an episode ended rather tamely. Mr. Combs 
 and Horace exchanged ideas on local politics, 
 and Mrs. Combs and Horace expressed them- 
 selves on the subject of the weather. Priscilla 
 had nothing to say on either interesting topic.
 
 94 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 She was trying to realize that some day, in- 
 stead of saying "Mr. Combs" and "Mrs. 
 Combs, " Horace would be addressing her 
 parents as "father" and "mother." This 
 seemed so extraordinary that she was almost 
 inclined to believe that she had dreamed the 
 whole thing, though the significantly tender 
 pressure of Horace's fingers, as he said good- 
 night, assured her to the contrary. 
 
 Priscilla slept very poorly that night. Her 
 dreams were troubled. And each time she 
 woke, which was on the average of once an 
 hour, she had a dreadful sense of impending 
 disaster. On each occasion it took her several 
 minutes to convince herself that nothing was 
 wrong, that instead she was a very fortunate 
 and happy girl, singled out of the world of 
 girls by a most unusual young man. And thus 
 reassured, she would drop off to sleep, to start 
 again with troubled dreams, and to go again 
 through the whole program. 
 
 Owing to her restless night, Priscilla over- 
 slept and had to dress in a hurry to avoid being 
 late to breakfast. By expedition she reached 
 the dining room just after her mother had
 
 PRISCILLA HAS A SECRET 95 
 
 seated herself. Her father followed a half 
 minute later, and leaning over her mother's 
 chair kissed her cheek. "Know what day it 
 is?" 
 
 "Of course, silly," laughed Mrs. Combs. 
 "But I'm astonished to hear that you do." 
 
 Smiling broadly, Mr. Combs went around the 
 table and took his seat. "We should have 
 planned a celebration," he remarked. 
 
 "What, and advertise our advanced age!" 
 exclaimed his wife in mock consternation. 
 
 "That's so," owned Mr. Combs with a 
 chuckle. "I remember when a silver wedding 
 seemed to me significant of extreme age. What 
 do you think, daughter, of having parents old 
 enough to have been married twenty-five 
 years?" 
 
 Then Priscilla knew what was the matter with 
 her. She thought of sitting opposite Horace 
 Hitchcock twice a day, year in and year out, for 
 a quarter of a century, and her heart turned 
 sick within her. All at once she knew how 
 his affections of manner would grate on one 
 who watched them for twenty-five years." He 
 had a way of raising his eye-brows and pursing
 
 96 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 his mouth which, she was convinced, would 
 drive her frantic in course of time. And then 
 her relentless common-sense, awake at last, 
 went on to assure her that the Horace Hitch- 
 cock who had made love to her in the park the 
 previous evening was in all essentials the smug, 
 vain little boy nobody liked. She watched her 
 father and mother exchanging smiles and knew 
 that such good comradeship between Horace 
 and herself was unthinkable. She doubted if 
 there would be a smile left in her after twenty- 
 five years of his society. 
 
 "You look tired this morning, Priscilla," 
 said Mr. Combs. "And I can't say I wonder. 
 That admirer of yours makes me rather " 
 
 "He's a very pleasant boy, I'm sure," in- 
 terrupted Mrs. Combs hastily, "though I wish 
 his manners were just a little simpler. But 
 he always looks so neat that it's refreshing to 
 the eye. And by the way, dear, I think you 
 had better see your tailor and get samples for 
 your fall suit. You've got to the point where 
 you must have something." 
 
 Priscilla did not notice her mother's dex- 
 trous changing of the subject. She was too
 
 PRISCILLA HAS A SECRET 97 
 
 absorbed in looking ahead twenty-five weary 
 years. Of course, in view of her discovery, the 
 only sensible thing to do was to get in touch 
 with Horace, and tell him that the lady with 
 whom he had been on such friendly terms in 
 Babylon was an entirely different person. But 
 that sane and simple way of escape never oc- 
 curred to Priscilla. She had given her word. 
 She must stand by it, no matter what it cost. 
 
 Amy came over about eleven o'clock, looking 
 very penitent. "Priscilla," she said, "I don't 
 blame you a bit for getting angry yesterday. 
 I 'm ashamed of what I said. Of course, ' ' added 
 Amy, her natural candor getting the better of 
 her, "Horace Hitchcock doesn't appeal to me, 
 but that doesn't excuse me for calling him a 
 manikin, and you have a right to choose your 
 friends to please yourself." 
 
 Priscilla 's acceptance of this apology took 
 Amy by surprise. She dropped her head on 
 her visitor's shoulder as Priscilla was tall 
 and Amy was short, this was a feat requiring 
 considerable dexterity and burst into tears.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE FRIENDLY TERRACE ORPHANAGE 
 
 PRISCILLA'S engagement, instead of interrupt- 
 ing her intimacy with her chums on Friendly 
 Terrace, seemed to intensify it. Up to the 
 night that she had walked with Horace in the 
 park, and he had claimed her on the score of 
 an affection dating back to Babylon, Priscilla 
 had rather enjoyed informing Peggy and others 
 that she would be unable to join in their plans 
 for the evening, as she was expecting a caller. 
 But now all this was changed. Instead, when 
 Horace called up to suggest coming out, he was 
 very likely to hear that his sweetheart of Baby- 
 lonian days had an imperative engagement 
 with Peggy, or Euth, or Amy, or more prob- 
 ably with all three. 
 
 It was after an evening spent at a moving 
 picture house that Peggy made a suggestion 
 destined to have more momentous results than 
 she dreamed. They had gone early to avoid 
 
 98
 
 FRIENDLY TERRACE ORPHANAGE 99 
 
 the crowd which a popular film is likely to 
 draw even in the warmest weather, and at nine 
 o 'clock they were occupying chairs on Peggy 's 
 porch, and discussing the heat. "How about 
 ice cream? " inquired Amy, fanning herself 
 with a magazine some one had left in the ham- 
 mock. 
 
 Before any one could answer, Peggy had in- 
 terposed with her astonishing suggestion. 
 "Girls, I move we adopt a French orphan." 
 
 Amy forgot her interest in ice cream. "A 
 French orphan," she gasped, "What for?" 
 
 "Well, there are plenty of reasons from the 
 orphan's standpoint, and several from ours, it 
 seems to me. Do you know we're getting ex- 
 travagant." 
 
 4 ' Oh, Peggy, ' ' Ruth reproached her. ' * Why, 
 as far as clothes go, I never got along with so 
 few in my life." 
 
 "I didn't say we were extravagant in clothes. 
 But do you know, we're getting to spend lots 
 of money for little, no-account things. How 
 many nights this week have we been to a 
 movie ? ' ' 
 
 The question was a rhetorical one, as Peggy
 
 100 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 knew the answer as well as any one. But 
 nevertheless Amy replied, "We've been three 
 times, but one night the boys took us." 
 
 "It costs just as much, no matter who pays. 
 There are four of us; and at twenty-five cents 
 apiece, that makes a dollar an evening. Three 
 dollars a week for movies, just for us four." 
 
 "Goodness," exclaimed Amy in as astonished 
 a tone as if this very simple arithmetical cal- 
 culation had been beyond her. "That does 
 seem a lot." 
 
 "And that's not all," continued Peggy. 
 "We've had ice cream, or ice cream soda, or 
 something of the sort, at least three times 
 this week, and these days you can't go near a 
 soda fountain for less than fifteen cents, and 
 you're more likely to pay twenty or twenty-five. 
 If we call our bill two dollars, that's putting it 
 pretty low. Five dollars, altogether." 
 
 "That is too much, Peggy," Priscilla agreed. 
 "Unless you stop to count up, you wouldn't 
 believe how much you can spend and all the 
 time think you've been economical. But why 
 the French orphan?" 
 
 1 1 Well, it 's awfully hard work saving by main
 
 FRIENDLY TERRACE ORPHANAGE 101 
 
 strength, and it's easy enough if you (have 
 something to save for. If I happen to feel 
 hungry for ice cream.' " 
 
 Amy groaned. "Don't!" she said in a hol- 
 low voice. "If we're not going to have any, 
 for pity's sake don't talk about it." 
 
 Peggy heartlessly ignored her friend's pro- 
 test. "If I'm hungry for ice cream, it doesn't 
 do me much good to tell myself that I had a 
 dish night before last. I'll just think, 'Oh, 
 well, what's twenty-five cents!' But if I'm 
 saving up for something, it 's a different matter. 
 We found that out when we were paying for 
 our Liberty Bonds." 
 
 "Won't it cost a great deal to adopt an 
 orphan?" asked Ruth doubtfully. 
 
 "Why, we won't have to pay all its expenses. 
 But there are lots of French children left with- 
 out fathers and mothers, who have some rela- 
 tive who can give them a home if they have 
 a little extra to help them out. I think forty 
 dollars will do it." 
 
 "Forty dollars a year?" Amy exclaimed in 
 amazement. 
 
 "I'm pretty sure that's it. Mrs. Alexander
 
 102 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 was talking to me about it just the other day, 
 and I'm certain she said forty dollars." 
 
 "Then let's adopt an orphan right away/' 
 cried Amy. "And we'll have money enough 
 left for sodas." 
 
 "Why, of course I didn't mean we should 
 give up all our good times," Peggy exclaimed. 
 "Only it seemed to me we were getting a little 
 too extravagant. Then if you all agree, I think 
 I'll go and telephone Mrs. Alexander that we'll 
 take an orphan. She's worried because people 
 aren't as interested as they ought to be." 
 
 It was while Peggy was at the telephone that 
 a small girl appeared, carrying a large bundle. 
 "I've brought home Mrs. Raymond's dress," 
 she said shyly, looking from one to another of 
 the occupants of the porch. 
 
 "Mrs. Raymond isn't home, but Miss Peggy 
 is. She's telephoning now, but she'll be out 
 in a minute," said Priscilla. 
 
 "You'd better sit down and rest while you 
 wait for her," suggested Ruth kindly, pushing 
 forward a porch rocking-chair. The small girl 
 accepted the invitation and looked smaller than 
 ever in the capacious depths of the big chair.
 
 FRIENDLY TERRACE ORPHANAGE 103 
 
 Peggy came out beaming. "Mrs. Alexander 
 is perfectly delighted, girls. She says ^Why, 
 hello, Myrtle!" 
 
 "Hello, Miss Peggy," returned the girl with 
 the bundle. "I brought home your mother's 
 dress. Aunt Georgie couldn't get it finished 
 any earlier." 
 
 "Mother gave you up for to-night, Myrtle. 
 She left at eight o'clock, but I think I know 
 where she put the money." 
 
 Peggy's conjecture proved correct. She 
 brought out the amount of the dressmaker's 
 bill, and having counted it before Myrtle 's eyes, 
 she folded the bills carefully and stuffed them 
 into Myrtle's diminutive pocket book. "Shall 
 you be glad when school opens, Myrtle?" she 
 asked pleasantly. 
 
 "I'm not going to school any more, Miss 
 Peggy." 
 
 "What! You're going to leave school?" 
 
 "Aunt Georgie can't afford to keep me any 
 longer. Everything is so high," sighed the 
 child, with a worldly-wise air that would have 
 seemed funny had it not been so apparent that 
 she knew what she was talking about.
 
 104 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 "But you can't be nearly fourteen, Myrtle," 
 protested Peggy. "And you were doing so 
 well in school.'* 
 
 "I'm twelve in September, but Aunt Georgie 
 can get permit for me to work, if she can't 
 afford to keep me in school." 
 
 "Would you rather work than go to school?" 
 asked Amy, rather tactlessly. 
 
 The eyes of the little girl filled. She sniffed 
 bravely as she fumbled for her handkerchief. 
 
 "I like school better," she explained, a catch 
 in her voice. ' * But I don 't like to be a burden. ' ' 
 
 There was a brief silence on the porch as 
 the little figure went down the walk, and then 
 Priscilla murmured pityingly, "Poor child!" 
 
 "It's a shame," exclaimed Peggy warmly. 
 "She's a bright little thing. She's not twelve 
 till September, and she's ready for the high 
 school already. If she could go to school four 
 years more she'd probably be able to earn a 
 good living, but she '11 never do very well if she 
 stops school now, for she's not strong enough 
 for heavy work." 
 
 "It almost seems a pity," Ruth suggested, 
 "that we've just adopted a French orphan.
 
 FRIENDLY TERRACE ORPHANAGE 105 
 
 It seems there are orphans right at home who 
 need help just as much." 
 
 Peggy sighed. ''I'm not sorry about the 
 French orphan. I suppose we can't imagine 
 the need over there. But I do wish we could 
 do something for Myrtle." 
 
 "Peggy Eaymond," warned Amy. "Don't 
 let your philanthropy run away with you, and 
 get the idea that we 're an orphan asylum. One 
 orphan is all we can manage. ' ' 
 
 "Yes, of course," Peggy agreed hastily. 
 "Only I was wondering poor little Myrtle!" 
 
 "Can't her aunt afford to give her an 
 education?" Priscilla asked, "Or is she 
 stingy?" 
 
 "Oh, I suppose it's pretty hard for Miss 
 Burns to get along with everything so expen- 
 sive. She's not a high-priced dress-maker, and 
 besides she's mortally slow; one of the putter- 
 ing sort, you know. At the same time, ' ' added 
 Peggy, "I mean to see her and have a talk 
 with her about Myrtle." 
 
 Peggy was as good as her word. As post- 
 ponement was never one of her weaknesses, 
 she saw Miss Burns the following day, and
 
 106 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 the faded little spinster shed tears as she dis- 
 cussed Myrtle's future. 
 
 "Of course I know she ought to go on 
 through high school, ' ' she sobbed. * * She 's been 
 at the head of her class right up through the 
 grades, and if she could finish high school, she 
 wouldn't need to ask any odds of anybody. 
 But I've laid awake night after night thinking, 
 and I can't see my way to do it." 
 
 "If you had a little help, Miss Burns, I sup- 
 pose you could manage, couldn't you? What 
 is the very least you could get along on and 
 let Myrtle stay in school?" 
 
 "Why she can't earn a great deal of course," 
 said Miss Burns, wiping her eyes. "She's 
 not old enough for a sales-woman, and she's 
 not strong enough for any hard work, and she 
 don't know anything about stenography." 
 
 "And what is the very least you think you 
 could take in place of having Myrtle go to 
 work?" 
 
 Miss Burns was one of the people who have 
 a constitutional aversion to answering a direct 
 question, but Peggy's persistence left her no 
 loop-hole of escape. Cornered at last, she ex-
 
 FRIENDLY TERRACE ORPHANAGE 107 
 
 pressed the opinion that she could do with a 
 hundred dollars. For some reason not quite 
 clear in her own mind, Peggy had hoped it 
 might be less, and her face showed her disap- 
 pointment. "You think that is the very least 
 you could get along on, Miss Burns." 
 
 ''I'm afraid it is, Miss Peggy. Maybe I 
 should have said a hundred and fifty. Look 
 at the price of coal." 
 
 "Oh, I know," Peggy agreed. "Well, per- 
 haps something will come up so Myrtle won't 
 have to leave school. I'm sure I hope so." 
 
 Peggy repeated the substance of her conver- 
 sation with Miss Burns to her three chums that 
 afternoon as they were on the way out to Amy's 
 Aunt Phoebe's. For in their efforts to circum- 
 vent the high cost of living, the Friendly Ter- 
 race girls had begun making weekly or even 
 semi-weekly visits to the country. The season 
 had been a favorable one for all garden pro- 
 duce, but Mr. Frost was finding it difficult to 
 get anything like the help he needed. The 
 girls went out into the garden, picked and 
 pulled what they wanted, paid a price which, 
 compared with the charges in the retail mar-
 
 108 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 kets, seemed extremely reasonable, and came 
 home with loaded market baskets and a tinge 
 of sunburn in their cheeks. The weekly saving 
 paid their car-fare many times over, and 
 the fact that they all were together lent a 
 festive air to the enterprise. 
 
 Peggy's three friends listened silently to 
 their story of her visit to Miss Burns. Peggy's 
 generosity was always leading her to attempt 
 things far too big for her. The girls had stood 
 by her loyally in the matter of the French 
 orphan, but there they drew the line. A second 
 orphan was too much. 
 
 "I'm sorry," Amy said, with an air of dis- 
 missing the subject. "But I don't see that 
 we can do anything for her. ' ' 
 
 "You don't think, do you," Peggy hesitated, 
 "that we could give a little entertainment " 
 
 "Oh, Peggy, people are bored to death with 
 benefits and drives, and to try to raise money 
 for a little girl nobody knows about would be 
 hopeless, especially when she's no worse off 
 than thousands of others." 
 
 "I suppose that's so," Peggy replied, and 
 reluctantly dropped the subject. Under her
 
 FRIENDLY TERRACE ORPHANAGE 109 
 
 submission was a persistent hope that some- 
 thing might happen to aid her in the matter 
 she had so much at heart. But the last thing 
 she or any one else would have thought was 
 that such assistance would come from Uncle 
 Philander-Behind-His-Back. 
 
 Mr. Frost had been having an unusually ha-rd 
 time with help and was in an exceptionally bad 
 humor. He was one of the men who, when out 
 of sorts, invariable relieve their minds by criti- 
 cism of the opposite sex. He had heard the 
 girls chattering as they picked the lima beans, 
 and doubtless that furnished the text for his 
 ill-natured sermon. 
 
 ' ' Women 's tongues do beat all, ' ' he declared, 
 as the girls came to the house to pay their 
 reckoning. "It's small wonder they don't 
 count much when it comes to work. They get 
 themselves all wore out talking.'* 
 
 "I think we do some other things beside 
 talking," declared Peggy, dimpling in a dis- 
 arming fashion. 
 
 "And I can't see that we say any sillier 
 things than men do, ' ' added Amy. 
 
 "0, men can talk or be quiet, just as they
 
 110 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 please, but a woman's got to talk or die. You 
 couldn't pay her enough to get her to hold her 
 tongue." 
 
 "You could pay me enough," said Peggy 
 with spirit. 
 
 "Me, too," Amy cried. 
 
 Uncle Philander-Behind His-Back sneered 
 contemptuously. "Why, I'd give you four a 
 hundred dollars to hold your tongues for a 
 week. ' ' 
 
 "Girls," cried Peggy turning to her friends, 
 "I move we take him up on that." 
 
 Had Uncle Philander-Behind-His-Back been 
 less disagreeable, less contemptuous, the girls 
 might have hesitated, for a week of silence is 
 an ordeal to the least voluble. But Mr. Frost 's 
 sneers, combined with Peggy's enthusiasm, 
 swept them off their feet. 
 
 "Yes, we'll take you up," Amy cried, and 
 Priscilla and Euth nodded approval. 
 
 Uncle Philander was a little taken aback, and 
 showed it. "You understand when I said hold 
 your tongues, I meant it. If there's an aye, 
 yes, or no out of any of the four of you, it's 
 all off."
 
 FRIENDLY TERRACE ORPHANAGE 111 
 
 "Of course," agreed the four girls in chorus. 
 
 Mr. Frost was plainly growing nervous. "Of 
 course I haven 't any way to keep tab on you. ' ' 
 
 "Philander," cried his wife, bristling with 
 indignation, "If you think Amy or any of her 
 friends would lie for the sake of money " 
 
 "No, I didn't mean that," he half apologized. 
 "I put all four of you on your honor. Not a 
 word out of you, not so much as an ouch." 
 
 "But we can write notes and explain to our 
 families, of course, ' ' cried Peggy. 
 
 "Of course," cried Amy, as Mr. Frost hesi- 
 tated. "And talk on our fingers. All you said 
 was tongues." 
 
 "You can write all the notes you want to," 
 conceded Uncle Philander generously. Now 
 that he had time to think of it, he was con- 
 vinced that the conditions he had imposed 
 could not possibly be complied with. Who had 
 ever heard of four lively girls maintaining an 
 unbroken silence for a week? His hundred 
 dollars was safe. 
 
 After some discussion it was decided that 
 the week should begin the following morning, 
 to give the girls ample chance to explain their
 
 112 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 singular "undertaking to their friends. And 
 then the four started off with their heavy bas- 
 kets, chattering excitedly, as if in the hopes of 
 saying in the few hours remaining before bed 
 time, all they would ordinarily have said in the 
 next seven days.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE LONGEST WEEK ON RECORD 
 
 IT was a Thursday when the four Friendly 
 Terrace girls entered on their remarkable con- 
 tract with Uncle Philander-Behind-His-Back, 
 and Friday began the longest week recorded in 
 the experiences of any of the four. According 
 to the calendar, it contained only the usual 
 seven days. According to the clock, each of 
 these days consisted of the customary twenty- 
 four hours. But the four chums knew 
 better. It was at least a month long. They 
 had spent Thursday evening explaining the 
 situation to their friends and relatives and say- 
 ing good-by as if for a week's absence. It was 
 not to be expected that their news would meet 
 the same reception in all quarters. Fathers and 
 mothers, while not exactly approving, were on 
 the whole rather amused, and inclined to take 
 the attitude that girls will be girls. Among 
 their friends outside, their announcement was 
 
 113
 
 114 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 received with a surprise that was sometimes 
 suggestive of enjoyment, and again of indigna- 
 tion. 
 
 Peggy found Graham particularly obdurate. 
 "Not to speak to me for a week? Well, I like 
 that!" 
 
 "I can write you letters, dear." 
 
 "Letters!" Graham's repetition of the word 
 was anything but flattering to Peggy's epis- 
 tolary efforts. "Of course," he went on in a 
 milder tone, "I love your letters when I'm 
 away from you. But to read letters instead 
 of talking to you is like like eating dried 
 apple pie in October." 
 
 "It's only a week," said Peggy, but she 
 sighed. And her sigh would have been much 
 more vehement had she dreamed how long that 
 week would prove. 
 
 Priscilla writing a little note to Horace 
 Hitchcock did not sigh over the prospect that 
 she could exchange no words with him for seven 
 days. Indeed she was conscious of a profound 
 relief. Recently Horace had taken up the phil- 
 osophical style in conversation, and Priscilla, 
 as she listened, frequently found herself unable
 
 THE LONGEST WEEK ON RECORD 115 
 
 to understand a word he was saying. At first 
 she assumed that this was due to her not hav- 
 ing given him sufficiently close attention, and 
 she had chided herself for her wandering 
 thoughts. But things were no better when she 
 listened her hardest. Priscilla knew that she 
 was not a fool. She had finished her junior 
 year in college, and her class standing in all 
 philosophical subjects had been excellent. If 
 she could not understand what Horace was 
 talking about, she felt reasonably sure that the 
 explanation was not in her own intellectual 
 lack but because Horace was talking nonsense. 
 The polysyllables he used so glibly and the 
 epigramatic phrases which to the unthinking 
 might have seemed indicative of erudition and 
 originality, when Priscilla came to analyze 
 them seemed to have no more relation to one 
 another than glittering beads strung on a wire. 
 Priscilla was driven to the conclusion that 
 Horace had been reading literature consider- 
 ably over his head, and that he was reproducing 
 for her benefit a sort of pot-pourri of recollec- 
 tions, blended without much regard to their 
 original connection.
 
 116 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 But this was not the only reason why Pris- 
 cilla had a sense of relief in writing to ask 
 Horace not to call for a week. As the days 
 went on, the thought of her silver wedding had 
 been increasingly painful. Horace's affecta- 
 tions, to which for. a time she had deliberately 
 closed her eyes, were continually more glaringly 
 in evidence. Once, when they were alone, Pris- 
 cilla had tremulously hinted that perhaps they 
 had been mistaken in supposing themselves 
 fitted for each other, and Horace's reception 
 of the suggestion had terrified her unutterably. 
 He had addressed himself to the stars and 
 asked if it were true that there was neither 
 faith nor constancy in womankind. Then he 
 had looked at Priscilla, with an expression of 
 agony, and said, "I thought it was you who was 
 to heal my tortured heart, and now you have 
 failed me.'* But when he began to put his 
 hand to his forehead and mutter that life was 
 only a series of disappointments and that the 
 sooner it was over the better, Priscilla, white 
 to the lips had assured him that he had mis- 
 understood her. Her efforts to restore his 
 serenity were not altogether successful and
 
 THE LONGEST WEEK ON RECOED 117 
 
 she did not feel at ease about him until, a day 
 or two later, she saw his name among the guests 
 at a dinner dance, at Mrs. Sidney Vanderpool's 
 country house. But the interview had con- 
 firmed her certainty that there was no escaping 
 the snare into which she had walked with eyes 
 wide open. And for that reason a week free 
 from Horace's society was more than welcome. 
 
 The silent week starting Friday morning had 
 seemed rather a joke to begin with. At four 
 breakfast tables, four girls who contributed not 
 a syllable to the conversation, contributed 
 largely, nevertheless to the family gaiety. 
 But by noon the humorous phase of the situ- 
 ation had passed, at least for the four chiefly 
 concerned. All of them went about with an 
 expression of Spartan-like resolve, blended 
 with not a little anxiety. For when people 
 have been chattering animatedly every day for 
 fifteen or twenty years, it is very easy for an 
 exclamation to escape their lips in spite of 
 resolutions to the contrary. 
 
 Peggy probably had the hardest time of any 
 one. For her brother, Dick, although fond of 
 calling attention to a fuzzy excrescence which
 
 118 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 he denominated his mustache, was as fond of 
 mischief as he had ever been. And while un- 
 doubtedly he would have been sorry to have 
 Peggy break her vow of silence, and lose the 
 hundred dollars which meant another year in 
 school for little Myrtle Burns, he nevertheless 
 subjected his sister to any number of nerve- 
 racking tests. A crash as of a falling body 
 in an upstairs room, a cry of anguish from the 
 cellar, a loud knocking on the ceiling of her 
 room apparently by ghostly fingers, were among 
 the devices Dick used for the testing of his 
 sister. On each occasion Peggy started con- 
 vulsively, but somehow or other choked back 
 the cry that rose to her lips, "Oh, what is it? 
 What is the matter?" 
 
 Though Dick was the only one of the Ray- 
 mond family who made deliberate attempts to 
 betray his sister into unguarded speech, Mrs. 
 Raymond, innocent as were her intentions, was 
 almost as much of a stumbling-block. "Now 
 what do you think, Peggy," she would begin, 
 "had we better try Turners again or " And 
 then catching sight of the Joan-of-Arc expres- 
 sion on Peggy's face, she would break off her
 
 THE LONGEST WEEK ON RECORD 119 
 
 question in the middle, and cry, "Oh, dear, I 
 entirely forgot ! I shall certainly be glad when 
 this ridiculous week is over." 
 
 There was one advantage in a week of silence. 
 The girls were allowed to write letters, and they 
 took full advantage of that permission. They 
 wrote to aunts and uncles and cousins and all 
 sorts of neglected relatives. They wrote to 
 old friends, who had moved to other cities. 
 They wrote to the girls they had come to know 
 in their work as farmerettes. They wrote 
 all four of them to Lucy Haines, a country 
 girl they had helped one summer vacation, now 
 a successful teacher. If all weeks had been 
 like this one, the postman who collected the 
 mail from the Friendly Terrace letter-box 
 would have needed an assistant. Peggy also 
 wrote to Graham every day, and she tried to 
 make her letters as sprightly and entertaining 
 as possible, so that he should not miss their 
 daily talks so much. But under the circum- 
 stances there was not a great deal to tell, and 
 if it had not been for Dick 's machinations, which 
 Peggy repeated in much detail, she feared that 
 her missives would have proved dull reading.
 
 120 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 Every afternoon the four girls met at the 
 home of one or the other of the quartette, 
 bringing sewing or fancy work. They usually 
 sat indoors, for if a neighbor conversationally 
 inclined had happened to come along while they 
 were occupying the porch the situation might 
 have been embarrassing. Amy made a valiant 
 effort to revive a finger alphabet they had used 
 in school to carry on extended conversations 
 across a school room. But though it had not 
 taken long for the girls to refresh their mem- 
 ories of the letters, they found it much harder 
 work to converse after the fashion of the deaf 
 and dumb than it had seemed when they were 
 younger, and for the most part conversation 
 languished. They sat and sewed, each vaguely 
 cheered by the proximity of her fellow suffer- 
 ers, though all the time conscious that this was 
 an abnormally long week. 
 
 But long as the days were, each came to an 
 end in time. Amy had fallen in the way of ap- 
 prising Aunt Phoebe by post-card that another 
 day had been passed in silence. "Tell Mr. 
 Frost he might as well make out his check 
 now," she wrote at the conclusion of the third
 
 THE LONGEST WEEK ON RECORD 121 
 
 day. "We haven't spoken yet, and now we've 
 learned the secret, there isn't the least danger 
 that any one will speak before the week is up." 
 
 As the days went by, the vigilance of the 
 girls increased instead of relaxing. Each 
 realized that a single inadvertent exclamation 
 from the lips of one would render vain the 
 effort and sacrifice of all. This realization got 
 rather on their nerves, and Ruth particularly, 
 showed it. 
 
 "It's the most absurd thing I ever heard of," 
 declared Mr. Wylie at breakfast one morning, 
 as Ruth came downstairs heavy-eyed. "You 
 girls call yourselves college women, don't you? 
 This affair is worthy of a bunch of high-school 
 Freshmen. ' ' 
 
 "I think Ruth wants me to remind you," 
 said Mrs. Wylie, as her daughter looked at her 
 appealingly, "that they mean to use the hun- 
 dred dollars in sending a little girl to school." 
 
 "But no man in his senses is going to pay 
 good money for anything like this. Who is he, 
 anyway ? ' ' 
 
 "A sort of Uncle of Amy's, didn't you say, 
 Ruth?"
 
 122 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 As Amy's relationship to Uncle Philander- 
 Behind-His-Back was too complicated to explain 
 without the assistance of language, Euth con- 
 tented herself with nodding. 
 
 4 'Probably he was only joking. A hundred 
 dollars is a hundred dollars, especially these 
 days. You oughtn't to have taken him 
 seriously, Ruth." 
 
 "I think Peggy is really responsible," re- 
 marked Mrs. Wylie, with a rather mischievous 
 smile, for Mr. Wylie 's admiration for his son's 
 fiancee was as outspoken as Graham's own. 
 
 "Is that so, Ruth?" 
 
 Ruth nodded. 
 
 "Then all I can say," declared Mr. Wylie, 
 pushing back his chair from the table, "is that 
 in this matter my future daughter-in-law 
 showed less than her usual good horse-sense." 
 
 "I'm beginning to understand something 
 that always puzzled me, ' ' Peggy wrote Graham, 
 that same evening. "You know in mathe- 
 matics they talk about an asymptote, some- 
 thing that something else is always approach- 
 ing, but never reaches. That always seemed 
 so foolish to me, to approach a thing con-
 
 THE LONGEST WEEK ON RECORD 123 
 
 tinually and never get there. But now I under- 
 stand. Thursday is an asymptote." 
 
 But though Thursday loitered on the way, it 
 arrived at last, and four girls woke to the 
 realization that it was supremely important 
 the day that either made void or confirmed the 
 success of the previous six. They spent the 
 morning characteristically. Kuth, who had felt 
 under the weather for a day or two, decided to 
 stay in bed, this being a safe refuge. Priscilla 
 took a basket of mending and retired to her 
 room. Peggy spent her time at her writing 
 desk and tried to collect some fugitive ideas 
 into a theme for her college English work in 
 the fall. Amy devoted herself to making a 
 cake with a very thick chocolate frosting. 
 
 It happened that this morning Amy had re- 
 ceived a postcard from Aunt Phoebe, the first 
 reply to her daily bulletins. "Glad to hear 
 you are getting on so well," wrote the old lady. 
 
 "P quite nervous." After the cake was 
 
 finished and the frosting hardening, Amy re- 
 solved to take Aunt Phoebe's card over to 
 Peggy. While they could not talk it over, they 
 could exchange smiles, and probably a few
 
 124 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 ideas as well, through the medium of a lead 
 pencil. The luckless Amy picked up the post 
 card and started off in high spirits. 
 
 It happened that one of the houses on the 
 Terrace had been built with a slate roof, which 
 at the present time was undergoing repairs. 
 Amy, swinging lightly along the familiar way, 
 gained rapidly on an old man ahead who 
 walked very deliberately, apparently ex- 
 amining the numbers of the houses. Amy 
 noticed that, although the sky was clear, he 
 carried a massive cotton umbrella. 
 
 The old gentleman was just opposite the 
 house which was being repaired, when one of 
 the workmen pulled out a broken slate and 
 without even looking behind him, flung it to the 
 street below. Amy saw the workman before 
 the slate left his hand, and some intuition 
 warned her of danger. "Look out!" she cried 
 shrilly, * ' Look out ! ' ' 
 
 The old man ahead dodged back. He was 
 none too quick, for the piece of slate, flying 
 through the air with the sharp edge down, 
 dropped where he had stood an instant before. 
 The old man took off his hat and ran his fingers
 
 THE LONGEST WEEK ON RECORD 125 
 
 through his hair. Amy saw it was Uncle Phil- 
 ander-Behind-His-Back. 
 
 The discovery, interesting in itself, meant 
 nothing to Amy at the moment. She uttered a 
 heart-broken wail. She had spoken before the 
 week was up. By her impulsive exclamation 
 she had forfeited the hundred dollars. Though 
 she knew acknowledgment must be made to 
 her partners in the undertaking, since as she 
 had broken the spell the others were auto- 
 matically released from the obligation of 
 silence, to face any of them at that moment 
 seemed impossible. Without a word to Mr. 
 Frost, Amy wheeled about and started for 
 home, the tears running down her cheeks. 
 
 Breathing hard', Uncle Philander-Behind- 
 His-Back trotted after her. What he meant to 
 say does not matter, since the discovery that 
 Amy was in tears resulted in the inquiry, 
 "What are you crying for, hey?" 
 
 "I lost it," Amy sobbed. "I spoke." 
 
 Her companion seemed to be deliberating. 
 "I s'pose you mean the hundred dollars." 
 
 * ' Of course I mean the hundred dollars. But 
 I don't see how I could have helped it. I
 
 126 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 couldn't walk on deliberately and see a sharp 
 piece of slate drop on a man's head." 
 
 "I came in to-day thinking I'd have a talk 
 with that friend of yours,"' said Mr. Frost, 
 " seeing she seemed to be the head one in this 
 thing. I was going to tell her that now I'd 
 thought it over, my conscience wasn't quite 
 easy about this agreement of ourn. I 'm afraid 
 it is too much like placing a bet." 
 
 Amy's jaw dropped as she looked at him. 
 Her tears dried instantly, the moisture evapo- 
 rated by the fires of her wrath. But either be- 
 cause her usually ready tongue was out of 
 practise after six days of idleness, or because 
 the realization of the perfidy of the old man 
 produced a momentary paralysis of her vocal 
 chords, not a word escaped her parted lips. 
 
 "Yes, it didn't look right to me," Mr. Frost 
 continued. "It was the same as betting that 
 .you four girls couldn't keep from talking for a 
 week. My conscience wouldn't let me be a 
 party to anything of that sort. But " 
 
 The pause after the "but" was prolonged. 
 Amy searched her vocabulary for words that 
 would do justice to the occasion, but Uncle Phil-
 
 " ' A HUNDRED DOLLARS AIN'T ANY TOO MUCH TO PAY 
 FOR HAVING YOUR LIFE SAVED
 
 THE LONGEST WEEK ON RECORD 127 
 
 ander-Behind-His-Back was continuing before 
 she knew what she wanted to say. 
 
 " Having your life saved is a different thing. 
 That slate had an edge on it like a meat ax, 
 and coming through the air the way it was, it 
 would have cleft my head open like it had been 
 an egg shell. My widow could have got 
 damages all right, but that wouldn't have 
 helped me out." 
 
 They had reached Amy's door by now. 
 "Got pen and ink handy?" asked Mr. Frost, 
 with a marked change of manner. 
 
 "Yes," said Amy tonelessly, and opened the 
 door for him. She led the way to the writing 
 desk, and pointed out the articles he required. 
 Mr. Philander Frost, seating himself, wrote out 
 a check for a hundred dollars, payable to Amy 
 Lassell or order. 
 
 "There," he said as he reached for the 
 blotter. "Can't nobody no matter how sen- 
 sitive their consciences are, find any fault with 
 that. A hundred dollars ain't any too much to 
 pay for having your life saved." 
 
 And then the ink had a narrow escape from 
 being overturned, for Amy flung her arms
 
 128 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 around the old gentleman's neck and hugged 
 him. "Uncle Philander!" she screamed, 
 "You're a prince." 
 
 And that is how little Myrtle Burns was 
 assured of her year in high school, and Uncle 
 Philander-Behind-His-Back was adopted, un- 
 reservedly, by four unusually attractive nieces.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE MOST WONDERFUL THING IN THE WORLD 
 
 NELSON HALLO WELL had something on his 
 mind. Ruth had discovered it early in the 
 evening. They had all gone over to Peggy's, 
 and there had been the usual amount of talk 
 and laughter, but Nelson had hardly spoken. 
 Every time she looked in his direction, Ruth 
 found his eyes upon her, and something in his 
 manner said as plainly as words could have told 
 it, that he was only waiting to get her alone to 
 impart some confidence of more than ordinary 
 importance. Ruth was not in the least in- 
 clined to be self-conscious, but for some reason 
 his unwavering regard made her nervous. She 
 was glad when the clock struck ten and she 
 could take her leave. 
 
 Though Graham had lingered for a little talk 
 with Peggy, and Nelson and Ruth had the side- 
 walk to themselves, the young man seemed in 
 no hurry to relieve his mind. Instead he 
 
 129
 
 130 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 walked at Ruth's side apparently absorbed in 
 thought. Ruth, waiting, half amused and half 
 vexed by his air of preoccupation, pinched her 
 lips tightly shut as she resolved not to be the 
 first to break the silence. 
 
 At the door of her home Nelson suddenly 
 roused himself. "May I come in for a little 
 while, Ruth?" 
 
 "Of course, Nelson. It's Friday. No 
 classes to-morrow." 
 
 "There's something I want to talk to you 
 about," he said, and followed her indoors with 
 an air of summoning his resolution. As Ruth 
 turned on the lights in the living room, he drew 
 a letter from his pocket and handed it to her. 
 "I'd like to have you read that." 
 
 Ruth seated herself by the drop light, and 
 drew out the enclosure. It was folded so that 
 her eye fell at once on the signature. "Why," 
 she exclaimed, "that's the nice soldier you got 
 acquainted with in the hospital." 
 
 "Yes. The fellow from Oklahoma, you 
 know. ' ' 
 
 Ruth unfolded the letter and began to read. 
 Immediately her expression underwent a
 
 THE MOST WONDERFUL THING 131 
 
 noticeable change. One would have said that 
 the letter annoyed her, though when at length 
 she lifted her eyes and met Nelson's expectant 
 look, she was laughing. * * Did you ever hear of 
 anything so absurd ?" she exclaimed. 
 
 Nelson cleared his throat. "If you look at 
 it in one way, it's quite an unusual chance. 
 You see he's willing to take me without any 
 capital " 
 
 "I don't know what he ever saw in you to 
 make him think you'd make a ranchman," 
 Ruth exclaimed. "I can't imagine you as a 
 cowboy. I suppose," she added excusingly, 
 "that he's always been used to an out-door 
 life and it seems rather dreadful to him for any 
 one to be shut up in a book-store." 
 
 "It is rather dreadful." 
 
 Ruth gave a little start. For a moment she 
 was under an impression that she had not 
 heard Nelson aright, or else that he was joking. 
 And yet his voice had no suggestion of humor. 
 It was hoarse and curiously intense, and as she 
 looked at him, she saw that his face was un- 
 naturally flushed. 
 
 "Why, Nelson," she cried, "What are you
 
 132 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 talking about! You can't mean that you don't 
 like your work." 
 
 Nelson looked at her appealingly. Without 
 realizing it, Euth had spoken in a rather 
 peremptory fashion, and at once his sensitive 
 face showed his fear of having offended her. 
 
 ' 'I used to think I liked it, Euth." 
 
 * ' Used to ! Why, Nelson ' ' 
 
 "But now it's like being in a strait jacket. 
 I don't ,see how any fellow who was in the 
 service can ever get back to standing behind a 
 counter and be satisfied." 
 
 Again Euth noticed the curious intensity of 
 his manner. She looked at the letter lying 
 upon the table with a feeling of irritation she 
 did not stop to analyze. 
 
 "Nelson, you don't mean you want to take 
 that offer? You wouldn't really like to go to 
 Oklahoma, would you? Why it's the jumping- 
 off place." 
 
 He sat looking at the floor. "I wanted to 
 know what you thought," he murmured. 
 
 "I'd hate to say all I thought. Why, Nelson, 
 I don 't believe it 's ever occurred to you what it 
 would mean to your mother." Euth herself
 
 THE MOST WONDERFUL THING 133 
 
 had not thought of Mrs. Hallowell until that 
 instant, and she made up for her tardiness by 
 speaking very earnestly. "It would simply 
 kill her to have you off at the ends of the 
 earth/* 
 
 1 1 Mother 's pretty game, you know. ' ' Nelson 
 smiled as if recalling something that had 
 pleased him particularly. "She says she 
 wouldn't mind a bit living in Oklahoma." 
 
 Euth swallowed hard. Something in his 
 reminiscent smile added to her vexation. 
 
 "I should think you would know better than 
 to take her seriously. She'd die of homesick- 
 ness. But of course, if you've really set your 
 heart on going thousands of miles away from 
 all your friends, I wouldn't want to put any- 
 thing in your way. ' ' 
 
 "Euth, you know I don't mean that." He 
 looked rather bewildered at her injustice. "I 
 haven't answered the letter. I just wanted to 
 know what you thought about it. ' ' 
 
 "Well, I think the whole thing is absurd. I 
 suppose you are a little restless after your 
 army life, but you'll get over that." 
 
 "I suppose I will," Nelson acknowledged.
 
 134 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 He was so humble about it that Ruth promptly 
 forgave him for having given favorable con- 
 sideration to the* offer of his friend in Okla- 
 homa, and was her usual pleasant self during 
 the remainder of his stay. 
 
 As far as Nelson was concerned, the matter 
 was dropped, but unluckily for Ruth's peace of 
 mind Peggy was yet to be heard from. The 
 next day was Saturday and Peggy dropped in 
 soon after breakfast. 
 
 "Ruth, what was the matter with Nelson last 
 evening? I never knew anybody to be so quiet. 
 I was afraid that perhaps something was said 
 that hurt his feelings. He's such a sensitive 
 fellow." 
 
 "No indeed, Peggy. It wasn't anything par- 
 ticular." Ruth hesitated, uncertain whether 
 to let it go at that, or to explain the situation in 
 full. Her life-long habit of confiding in Peggy 
 proved more than a match for her undefined 
 hesitation, and she went on to tell of the letter 
 from Oklahoma with its preposterous offer. 
 She finished with a little contemptuous laugh, 
 but Peggy's face was grave. 
 
 "Did he want to go, Ruth!"
 
 135 
 
 , he well, it seems, Peggy, that since 
 he got out of the service he's been sort of rest- 
 less. He got so used to outdoor life that he 
 doesn't enjoy indoor work. But I tell him 
 he'll get over that." 
 
 "I suppose," said the downright Peggy, 
 looking straight at her friend, "that you feel 
 that you wouldn't want to live in Oklahoma." 
 
 Ruth jumped. Then as the blood rushed 
 tingling to the roots of her hair, she turned on 
 Peggy a look of intense indignation. 
 
 "Peggy Raymond, what on earth are you 
 talking about?" 
 
 Peggy sat without replying and Ruth con- 
 tinued vehemently, "Of course I like Nelson 
 Hallowell ; like him very much. I consider him 
 one of my very best friends. But that's all. 
 The very idea of your talking as if 
 
 "I suppose," said Peggy, as Ruth came to a 
 halt, "you'd miss him if he went out West." 
 
 Ruth brightened. "Yes, that's just it. I'd 
 miss him terribly. I really think he's one of 
 the nicest boys I ever knew, and for all he 's so 
 quiet, we have dandy times together. But as 
 for anything else "
 
 136 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 11 Don't you think," suggested Peggy, as 
 Euth halted again, * * that it seems a little bit un- 
 fair to interfere with Nelson's future, just be- 
 cause you like to have him dropping in every 
 day or two and because it's convenient to have 
 an escort whenever you want to go some- 
 where 1 ' ' 
 
 Euth found herself incapable of replying. 
 She sat staring at Peggy with a resentment 
 that she could not have concealed if she had 
 tried. And Peggy quite unmoved by her 
 friend's indignation, continued judicially, "If 
 you were going to marry Nelson, you would 
 have a perfect right to help decide where he 
 should be located. But it's considerable of a 
 responsibility to persuade him to turn down an 
 offer like that, just because you're afraid 
 you're going to miss him if he goes away." 
 
 Euth found her voice. "Nelson Hallowell 
 can do exactly as he pleases. He asked my ad- 
 vice and I gave it, but he doesn't have to take it 
 unless he wants to." 
 
 "That's not fair, Euth. However you feel 
 about it, you know perfectly well that Nelson 
 wants to please you more than anything in the
 
 THE MOST WONDERFUL THING 137 
 
 world. And besides, when a friend asks you 
 your advice, you're supposed to think of what 
 is best for him and not of what you want your- 
 self." 
 
 "Really, Peggy," said Euth rather wither- 
 ingly, "as long as Nelson is satisfied with my 
 advice, I can't see that any one else need take 
 it to heart." 
 
 Peggy colored. It was a fact that, relying on 
 long intimacy and close friendship, she had 
 said more to Ruth than she would have been 
 justified in saying to another girl. "Excuse 
 me, Ruth," she answered quickly. "I'm 
 afraid I was rather interfering." 
 
 The effect of this apology was peculiar. 
 Ruth burst into tears. "Oh, don't, Peggy," 
 she sobbed. "Don't act as if it wasn't any 
 business of yours what I did." 
 
 "I'm afraid," owned Peggy, "that I'm too 
 much inclined to think everything you do is my 
 business." 
 
 "No, you're not. We're just the same as 
 sisters. And it would kill me if you washed 
 your hands of me." 
 
 Peggy burst into a reassuring laugh. ' ' Small
 
 138 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 danger of that, dearie. I'm likely to remain 
 Meddlesome Peggy to the end of the chapter, 
 as far as you 're concerned. And I don 't know 
 what you're crying for, Euth." 
 
 Ruth was not quite sure herself, but she con- 
 tinued to sob. "Do you think I ought to en- 
 courage Nelson to go, Peggy?" 
 
 "I don't say that. But it seems to me you 
 ought not to discourage him, unless you have 
 a good reason. And though I don't know much 
 about such things, it sounded to be like a won- 
 derful offer. What does Nelson think?" 
 
 "I I guess he thought so, too, but I didn't 
 give him a chance to say much. " Euth dropped 
 her head upon Peggy's shoulder and sobbed. 
 "Oklahoma is such a dreadful way off." 
 
 "I know it is," Peggy patted her shoulder 
 tenderly. "I'd nearly cry my eyes out if any- 
 body I loved went there to live." 
 
 "Nelson is so good, Peggy. He wanted to 
 go, but he gave it up just as soon as he saw 
 I didn't like the idea. And I know he hates 
 that old book store." 
 
 Peggy continued to smile rather wistfully 
 and to pat the heaving shoulders while Euth
 
 THE MOST WONDERFUL THING 139 
 
 prattled on. "I'm awfully selfish, I know. 
 It's just as you said. I never gave a thought 
 to what was best for him." 
 
 "I never said that, Kuth, I'm sure." 
 
 "Well, it's so, anyway. I wonder if he's an- 
 swered that letter yet. I'm going to call up 
 and see." 
 
 Euth had no need to look in the tele- 
 phone book to find the number of Flynn's 
 book store. As the hour was early, Nelson 
 himself answered the call. His politely inter- 
 rogative tone changed markedly as in re- 
 sponse to his, "Hello," Kuth said, "It's I, 
 Nelson. ' ' 
 
 ' * Ruth ! Why, good morning ! ' ' 
 
 "Have you answered that letter from Okla- 
 homa?" 
 
 "No, I haven't, Euth. But never mind that 
 letter. We won't talk about it any more." 
 
 "I just wanted to ask you not to answer it 
 till we'd talked it over again, Nelson." 
 
 He hesitated a moment. " I don 't see the use 
 of that. I wanted to see how you really felt 
 about it, and now IVe found out." 
 
 "Well, don't answer it right away. That's
 
 140 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 all. Are you coming up to-night, Nelson?" 
 
 ' ' Sure." 
 
 Euth smiled faintly at the emphatic syllable. 
 "Good-by," she said, then sighed as she hung 
 up the receiver. "Well, it's all right," she 
 told the waiting Peggy. "I haven't done any 
 mischief that I can 't undo. ' ' 
 
 But when Nelson came that evening he proved 
 unexpectedly obdurate. He showed an extreme 
 reluctance to re-open the subject of the Okla- 
 homa proposition, and roused Euth's indigna- 
 tion by hinting that the matter did not concern 
 Peggy Eaymond, and he could not see any rea- 
 son for her "butting in." And when sternly 
 called to order for this bit of heresy, he still 
 showed himself unwilling to talk of Oklahoma. 
 
 "What's the use?" he burst out suddenly. 
 "I know how you feel about it. I I It's 
 awfully hard explaining, Euth, when I haven't 
 any right to to say how I feel but the long 
 and short of it is I wouldn't go to any place 
 where you wouldn't live." 
 
 He stopped, his face scarlet as he realized all 
 his statement implied. Nelson was keenly con- 
 scious of his own disadvantages. Graham
 
 THE MOST WONDERFUL THING 141 
 
 would soon be in a position to support a family, 
 but the salary Mr. Flynn paid his competent 
 clerk made a wife seem an impossible luxury. 
 Nelson regarded Ruth as the bright particular 
 star of the Friendly Terrace quartette. He 
 considered her prettier than Peggy, wittier 
 than Amy, and more talented than Priscilla. 
 For him to aspire to be the first in her heart 
 was the height of presumption, in Nelson 's 
 opinion, and yet he had just said to her in 
 effect that he would not go to any place where 
 she would not go with him. Despairingly he 
 realized how poorly his presumptuous speech 
 had expressed his attitude of worshipful 
 humility. 
 
 Then he became aware that Ruth was looking 
 at him from the other side of the table, and 
 that her manner lacked the indignation ap- 
 propriate to the occasion. She held her head 
 very high, and her eyes were like stars. Nelson 
 suddenly experienced a difficulty in breathing. 
 His heart was beating more rapidly than it had 
 ever beaten under fire. He heard himself 
 asking a question, the audacity of which 
 astounded him.
 
 142 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 "You wouldn't think of it, would you, Euth, 
 going out to that rough cattle country, a girl 
 like you!" 
 
 He did not realize the desperation in his 
 voice as he put the question, but its appeal went 
 straight to Ruth's heart. She answered un- 
 hesitatingly. "The place wouldn't matter, 
 Nelson. Everything would depend on the one 
 the one I went with." 
 
 It was not an opportune time for Graham to 
 walk into the room. And it argued him obtuse, 
 that instead of realizing he was in the way, he 
 seated himself in the easy chair, and proceeded 
 to discuss a variety of subjects. Once or twice 
 Nelson's answers suggested that his mind was 
 wandering, and small wonder. For when the 
 most wonderful thing in the world has just 
 happened, it is hard on any young fellow to be 
 held up and forced to give his views on uni- 
 versal training.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 MISTRESS AND MAID 
 
 A CAREWORN, anxious expression had come to 
 be so much at home on Priscilla's countenance, 
 that it did not surprise Peggy to look from her 
 window one Saturday morning and see Priscilla 
 approaching, her face so lined by worry as to 
 suggest that the heaviest responsibilities rested 
 on her shoulders. As she was quite uncon- 
 scious of Peggy 's observation, she did not make 
 her usual effort to smile and appear natural. 
 
 "I wish I knew what ailed that girl," thought 
 Peggy, studying Priscilla's changed counten- 
 ance with a heart-sick concern. "She looks 
 years older than she did six months ago, and I 
 can't make out whether she's sick or just un- 
 happy. And the worst of it is that one can't 
 get a thing out of her." 
 
 But in this particular instance Peggy was to 
 have no reason to complain of Priscilla's reti- 
 cence. As Priscilla raised her heavy eyes and 
 
 143
 
 144 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 saw her friend's face at the window, her own 
 face brightened and she quickened her steps. 
 Peggy hurried to the door, and flung it open 
 with an unreasonable hope that this interview 
 would end the mystery which had baffled her 
 for so long. But the perplexity Priscilla had 
 come to confide was too recent to explain her 
 worried air through the months past. She was 
 hardly in the house before she burst out, 
 " Peggy, I'm in an awful pickle." 
 "What's the matter? Can I help!" 
 "I wondered if you would lend me Sally." 
 "Sally?" repeated Peggy in accents of 
 astonishment. For the maid-of -all-work in the 
 Eaymond household was a possession of which 
 few people were envious. Whether Sally was 
 really weak minded was a question on which a 
 difference of opinion was possible, but there 
 was no possible doubt of her talent for doing 
 the wrong thing at the right time or else, vice 
 versa, the right thing at the wrong time. Her 
 one redeeming feature was her amiability, but 
 as this frequently took a conversational turn, it 
 was not without its drawbacks. That any of 
 her friends could want to borrow Sally, or that
 
 MISTRESS AND MAID 145 
 
 any household but their own would put up with 
 the blundering, good-natured apology for a 
 domestic servant, had never entered Peggy's 
 head. 
 
 1 ' Sally, ' ' she repeated, still in a tone of mysti- 
 fication. "Of course you can have her if you 
 want her, but whatever it is, she'll do it wrong." 
 
 "I suppose she could open the door for a 
 caller, couldn't she?" 
 
 "Why, she can open a door, as a rule, but 
 just now she's got a tooth-ache, and her head 
 is tied up in a red flannel, so unless the callers 
 are people of strong nerves, they may be 
 startled. ' ' 
 
 "0 dear!" Priscilla's acceptance of this bit 
 of information was so suggestive of tragedy 
 that Peggy was more puzzled than ever. 
 "Who is the caller?" she demanded. "And 
 why in the world do you want Sally?" 
 
 "Well, it's quite a story, Peggy. You know 
 Mother's away this week and Martha's having 
 her vacation, and Father and I are taking our 
 meals at the Lindsays. And last evening 
 Horace Hitchcock called, and it seems that an 
 aunt of his is in town."
 
 146 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 "Oh!" said Peggy. She always made des- 
 perate efforts to act just as usual when 
 Horace's name was mentioned, but under such 
 circumstances she invariably felt as if a thick 
 curtain had dropped between her friend and 
 herself. "Horace Hitchcock's aunt," she re- 
 peated, trying valiantly to speak naturally. 
 "Is she his mother's sister or his father's." 
 
 "Neither one. She's his father's aunt, and 
 of course she is quite old and very rich, and it 
 seems she's coming out to call on me." 
 
 "To call on you," Peggy exclaimed. "How 
 interesting!" 
 
 But that adjective registered an exception to 
 Peggy's usual frankness. Had she spoken her 
 real feelings she would have said, * * How dread- 
 ful ! ' ' For a call from the young man 's great- 
 aunt seemed to imply that the young man's 
 intentions were serious, and recognized by the 
 family. Horace and Priscilla! Peggy stifled 
 a groan. 
 
 "And you see the fix I'm in," Priscilla was 
 explaining disconsolately. "Of course she's 
 used to butlers and everything, and here I've 
 got to go to open the door myself."
 
 MISTRESS AND MAID 147 
 
 Peggy listened wonderingly. For even if 
 Horace Hitchcock had been an entirely different 
 young man, the necessity for opening the door 
 to his great-aunt would not have impressed her 
 as a tragedy. Priscilla's intuition told her 
 what was passing through the other girl's 
 mind, and she spoke a little fretfully. 
 
 "Of course it's silly to mind, Peggy, but I do 
 mind, just the same. Mrs. Duncan has a house- 
 ful of servants, and she thinks of women who 
 answer their own door-bell as we think of 
 women who take in washing." Priscilla's 
 feeling of resentment at Peggy was enhanced 
 by her own wonder at herself. The glamor 
 which had surrounded Horace in the first re- 
 newal of their childish acquaintance had quite 
 disappeared, and yet she could not bear the 
 thought that Horace's great-aunt might look 
 down upon her. 
 
 "Sally wouldn't be the least bit of good," 
 Peggy declared, "even if it wasn't for the red 
 flannel. Just when I want Sally to be on her 
 good behavior, she does some perfectly un- 
 heard-of thing. When do you expect Mrs. 
 Duncan?"
 
 148 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 "Oh, sometime this forenoon. Horace 
 thought about eleven. And that's another 
 
 1 
 
 thing that puzzles me, ' ' exclaimed Priscilla un- 
 happily. "Ought I to dress up, do you think, 
 as long as I'm expecting a call?" 
 
 "I'd wear my blue serge, if I were you. Blue 
 serge is always safe and, besides, you look 
 awfully well in that dress. And you need not 
 worry about the maid. I'm it." 
 
 "Why, Peggy, what do you mean?" 
 
 "Don't insult me by asking for Sally, and 
 then pretending that I won't do. I've got a 
 black dress and a cute little ruffled apron, and 
 I'm just aching to try my hand at one of those 
 fetching caps the maids wear in the movies." 
 
 "But, Peggy, suppose Horace should come 
 with his aunt ! ' ' 
 
 "You don't expect him, do you?" 
 
 "No. I'm sure he didn't plan to come last 
 evening. But he might change his mind." 
 
 "We'll keep on the look-out. If we see a 
 lady arriving with a young man in tow, I'll 
 roll my cap and apron into a bundle and put 
 them under my arm. Then I '11 be your friend, 
 Peggy Raymond, making a morning call. But
 
 MISTRESS AND MAID 149 
 
 if the lady is alone, I'm Margaret, the maid." 
 
 Priscilla was hardly arrayed in her blue 
 serge when Peggy arrived, and the two girls 
 inspected each other admiringly. The Plain- 
 ness of the blue serge set off the long lines of 
 Priscilla 's slender, graceful figure, while the 
 little frilled, nonsensical cap gave a charm to 
 Peggy's mischievous face. "You look like a 
 queen," Peggy declared. 
 
 "And you're darling in that cap. I'm afraid 
 she'll suspect something the minute she sees 
 you. ' ' 
 
 Mistress and maid were sitting comfortably 
 side by side in the dining-room when the door- 
 bell rang. Peggy started to her feet, but Pris- 
 cilla clutched her arm. "Don't go far, will 
 you, Peggy." 
 
 "I don't want to appear to be eavesdropping, 
 ma'am." 
 
 "Nonsense: you can pretend to be dusting 
 something out here. I don't want you to go 
 away." Priscilla was experiencing a panic at 
 the thought of being left to the tender mercies 
 of Horace Hitchcock's great-aunt. She needed 
 the close proximity of Peggy to give her con- 
 fidence.
 
 150 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 Horace had not accompanied Mrs. Duncan. 
 She stood upon the steps, a little withered 
 woman, rather elaborately dressed, and she 
 inspected Peggy through her lorgnette. "Is 
 Miss Combs in?" she inquired, after finishing 
 her leisurely scrutiny. 
 
 "I think so, Madame. Please walk in." 
 Peggy ushered the caller into the front room 
 and brought a tray for her card. Her cheeks 
 had flushed under Mrs. Duncan's inspection. 
 The small, beady eyes in the wrinkled face had 
 a curiously piercing quality, and she wondered 
 uneasily whether this remarkable old woman 
 could possibly have recognized that she was 
 only masquerading. 
 
 She carried the card upstairs to Priscilla 
 who had retreated to her room, the prey of 
 nerves, and brought back word that Miss Combs 
 would be down in a few minutes. Then she 
 retired to the adjoining room and began on her 
 dusting. She was not sorry Priscilla had in- 
 sisted that she be near, for she was extremely 
 curious to hear what the visitor was going to 
 say. 
 
 Priscilla followed Peggy in something like
 
 MISTRESS AND MAID 151 
 
 half a minute, and greeted her caller sweetly, 
 though with some constraint. Mrs. Duncan 
 looked her over approvingly. "You're not as 
 pretty as I expected," was her disconcerting 
 beginning. 
 
 In the next room Peggy gasped. Priscilla 
 drew herself up and blushed crimson. 
 
 "What I meant to say," explained the terri- 
 ble old woman, "is that you're not as pretty as 
 I expected, but much handsomer. I took it for 
 granted Horace would admire some namby- 
 pamby with a doll's face. I suppose you know 
 you're a very striking type, don't you?''' 
 
 "I can't say I've thought much about it," 
 prevaricated Priscilla. 
 
 "And you're going to college," continued 
 Mrs. Duncan. "What's your idea in that? I 
 suppose you know that if you marry Horace, 
 you ought not to know too much. ' ' 
 
 "Really, Mrs. Duncan " 
 
 But Priscilla 's caller was off at a tangent. 
 "You've got a nice-looking maid! Have you 
 any brothers?" 
 
 "No," replied Priscilla mechanically. "I'm 
 an only child."
 
 152 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 "When you're married, Miss Combs, take an 
 old woman's advice and never have an attrac- 
 tive maid about the house. My married life of 
 twenty years was reasonably successful," ex- 
 plained Mrs. Duncan complacently, "and I lay 
 it all to my habit of selecting maids who were 
 either cross-eyed or else pock-marked. ' ' 
 
 Prisicilla felt that she hated her, but as she 
 struggled to conceal her inhospitable emotion, 
 her visitor inquired blandly, "What do you and 
 Horace talk about!" 
 
 "About Oh, about all sorts of things." 
 Priscilla wondered if ever in her life she had 
 appeared as inane and stupid as on this mo- 
 mentous occasion. 
 
 "I -can't understand him, you know," ex- 
 plained Mrs. Duncan, rubbing her nose. 
 "Sometimes I think it's because I'm a fool, 
 and sometimes I think it's because he's a fool. 
 I dare say you've felt the same uncertainty. 
 But we'd better talk of something else, so you 
 won't look to conscious when he arrives." 
 
 "Arrives?" repeated Priscilla blankly. 
 
 "Yes, he's- to lunch with me down town. He
 
 MISTRESS AND MAID 153 
 
 suggested that I would enjoy taking him to 
 what's the name of the place? Oh, well, he'll 
 know. Perhaps you 11 join us." 
 
 Priscilla declined fervently. Without saying 
 it in so many words, she gave the impression 
 that she had a most imperative engagement for 
 the afternoon. As she voiced her stammering 
 refusal, she felt like a criminal on the verge of 
 exposure. For when the bell rang Peggy would 
 answer it, and Horace would at once recognize 
 that Priscilla 's attractive maid was no other 
 than Priscilla 's bosom friend. 
 
 But Peggy, dusting' industriously in the ad- 
 joining room, had overheard the news that had 
 carried consternation to Priscilla 's soul, and 
 acted upon the hint with characteristic prompt- 
 ness. A moment later she appeared in the 
 doorway, waiting unobtrusively till Priscilla 
 looked in her direction. And then she said re- 
 spectfully, "Miss Priscilla." 
 
 Priscilla struggled to play her part. ; ' Yes- 
 Margaret?" 
 
 "I haven't done the marketing yet. If you 
 can spare me for a little while, I'll attend to it."
 
 154 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 ''Certainly, Margaret," replied Priscilla 
 with boundless relief. 
 
 As Peggy disappeared, Mrs. Duncan leaned 
 forward and tapped Priscilla 's knee. "I tell 
 you she's too good to be true," she insisted. 
 1 1 She 's too pretty, too well-mannered. There 's 
 something wrong somewhere. Don't trust 
 her." And Priscilla had to conquer the im- 
 pression that it was her friend Peggy who was 
 being slandered, before she could assume the 
 nonchalant manner suited to the statement that 
 they had always found Margaret a most trust- 
 worthy girl. 
 
 Horace arrived some fifteen minutes after 
 Peggy's departure, and his apologies to his 
 great-aunt were more profuse than his slight 
 tardiness called for. Indeed, as Priscilla 
 watched his manner toward the domineering 
 old lady, she was unpleasantly reminded that 
 Mrs. Duncan was a rich widow, and that Horace 
 might cherish the hope of inheriting at least 
 a portion of her wealth. Priscilla had all the 
 contempt of a normal American girl for a for- 
 tune-hunter, and her lover had never appeared 
 to less advantage in her eyes than in his ob-
 
 MISTRESS AND MAID 155 
 
 vious efforts to please his eccentric relative. 
 In her revolt from Horace's methods she went a 
 little too far in the other direction, and her 
 manner as she parted from her guest was frigid 
 rather than friendly. Mrs. Duncan's call was 
 the first indication that Horace's people were 
 aware of his intentions, and Priscilla had a not 
 unreasonable feeling of resentment at being 
 inspected to see if she would do. Although 
 the door had been opened for Mrs. Duncan 
 by a correctly appointed maid, Priscilla was 
 miserably conscious that the call had not been 
 a success, and that her unfavorable impression 
 of Horace's great-aunt was probably returned 
 by that terrible old person with something to 
 spare.
 
 CHAPTEB XI 
 
 QUITE INFORMAL 
 
 AMY'S memorable dinner party, which had 
 resulted in making Bob Carey such a frequent 
 caller, was responsible for another agreeable 
 friendship. Bob's sister Hildegarde, if she did 
 not fully share her brother's sentiments where 
 Amy was concerned, acknowledged, neverthe- 
 less, to a thorough liking for the girl who had 
 played the part of hostess under such trying 
 circumstances. She saw considerable of Amy 
 and, through her, had made the acquaintance 
 of Amy's especial chums on Friendly Terrace. 
 The girls all liked Hildegarde, and Hildegarde 
 liked them, though she was continually accusing 
 them of being old-fashioned in their ideas. 
 Hildegarde had rather more spending money 
 than was good for her, and her social ambitions 
 were the bane of Bob's existence. Bob hated 
 formality. He never put on his dress suit 
 except under protest, and his popularity among 
 
 156
 
 QUITE INFORMAL 157 
 
 his sister's friends, with the resulting invi- 
 tations to all sorts of affairs, awakened his 
 profound resentment. The simple good times 
 of Amy's set where every one came at eight 
 o 'clock and went home at ten, exactly suited him. 
 
 There was perhaps a spice of malice back of 
 an invitation Amy received one morning. The 
 previous evening Bob had accompanied his sis- 
 ter to the home of one of her friends. He had 
 gone reluctantly, only yielding when Hildegarde 
 had agreed to start for home promptly at ten. 
 There had been other callers, however, and 
 bridge had been suggested, so that it was quarter 
 of one when the brother and sister reached 
 home. Bob was frankly sulky. "I hate to go 
 down to the office in the morning feeling like a 
 fool because I haven't had sleep enough," he 
 declared. 
 
 "Bob Carey, any one would suppose you were 
 an old grandfather to hear you talk. I don't 
 know another fellow your age who thinks he 
 has to go to bed with the chickens." 
 
 "And knowing the hours some of your 
 friends keep," returned Bob irritatingly, "I'm 
 not surprised at their seeming lack of intelli-
 
 158 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 gence. They're practically walking in their 
 sleep." 
 
 " Please leave my friends alone. You 
 wouldn't be particularly pleased if I began 
 sneering at Amy." 
 
 "Sneering at Amy!" Bob's tone was scorn- 
 ful as he repeated his sister's words. "If you 
 did, it would be only to get even with me." 
 
 "I don't suppose she's absolute perfection." 
 
 "I don't know." 
 
 "Oh, Bob, don't be so absurd." But though 
 Hildegarde ended with a laugh, she was still 
 resentful. She knew that Bob had planned to 
 call on Amy that evening and shrewdly judged 
 that, since she had thwarted his intention, he 
 would go the following night. Accordingly she 
 called Amy on the phone bright and early, and 
 invited her to attend a down-town picture show ; 
 not an ordinary movie, but a special attraction 
 with the seats selling at regular theater prices. 
 Amy exclaimed delightedly, and then caught 
 herself up. 
 
 "I forgot that Peggy and Priscilla were 
 coming over to-night. But I'm sure they'll let 
 me off. I'll call them up and then call you.
 
 QUITE INFORMAL 159 
 
 I'm crazy to see that picture, but I didn't ex- 
 pect to for a year or two till it got down to the 
 twenty -five cent houses." 
 
 "We'll ask Peggy and Priscilla to go, too," 
 said Hildegarde. 
 
 "Gorgeous," replied Amy, "and it's so near 
 the end of vacation we can make it a final 
 spree"; and Hildegarde, smiling a little, 
 proceeded to call the two Sweet P's as 
 she mentally designated them. Both girls 
 were unqualifiedly delighted to accept, for 
 one of the advantages of not possessing too 
 much money is that the zest for simple pleasures 
 remains keen. Hildegarde had friends who 
 were blase over a trip to Europe, and she 
 always felt a little wonder, not without a tinge 
 of patronage it must be admitted, over the 
 thoroughness with which Amy and her friends 
 could enjoy things. 
 
 When Hildegarde announced casually at the 
 dinner table that she would have to be excused 
 before the desert, as she and Amy were to see 
 the "Star of Destiny" that evening, her brother 
 shot her a comprehending glance. "I'd have 
 bought a ticket for you, Bob," Hildegarde ex-
 
 160 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 plained teasingly, "Only I felt sure you meant 
 to go to bed at nine, and make up the sleep you 
 lost last evening." 
 
 "You're always thoughtful, Hildegarde," 
 said Bob with an irony so apparent that his 
 mother stared. And Hildegarde hurrying 
 through her dinner, felt cheerful certainty that 
 as far as her brother was concerned, she had 
 evened the score. 
 
 The ' ' Star of Destiny ' ' proved quite as thrill- 
 ing as any of the audience could have wished, 
 and the accompanying comedy a trifle less inane 
 than the average picture comedy. At ten 
 o'clock the girls left the theater, while the 
 crowd that had been standing in line scrambled 
 to take the seats they had vacated. As they 
 reached the sidewalk, Hildegarde slipped her 
 hand through the arm of Priscilla, who hap- 
 pened to be nearest, "I'm on the point of 
 starvation," she declared gaily. "I had to 
 hurry through my dinner so, I feel as though 
 I hadn't had a thing. Now we'll go over to the 
 Green Parrot and get something to eat." 
 
 The guests hesitated. "Is do you think 
 it is all right for girls to go there alone
 
 QUITE INFORMAL 161 
 
 in the evening?" asked Peggy doubtfully. 
 
 "Why of course. The name's rather lurid, 
 but it's a perfectly nice place. Let's take this 
 cross-street and then we'll save half a block." 
 
 On the way to the popular restaurant, Hilde- 
 garde did most of the talking. None of her 
 guests felt exactly comfortable over accepting 
 the invitation ; and yet to decline it, when Hilde- 
 garde declared herself half starved, seemed de- 
 cidedly ungracious. None of the Friendly 
 Terrace girls had been brought up to think a 
 chaperone a necessary accompaniment to all 
 youthful pleasures, but venturing into a down- 
 town restaurant at ten o'clock in the evening, 
 without either chaperone or escort, was rather 
 too up-to-date to please any of them. Peggy 
 pictured Graham's face when she told him of 
 the climax of the evening's pleasures, and 
 smiled rather ruefully. 
 
 Once inside, it must be admitted, the spirits 
 of all three revived. The big room was so 
 lighted that it was more dazzling than the noon 
 day. A space had been cleared for dancing, 
 and several couples were revolving in time to a 
 catchy popular air. The majority of the tables
 
 162 , PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 were occupied, but the head-waiter, who evi- 
 dently recognized Hildegarde, led the way to a 
 small round table at the side, and seated them 
 with a flourish. No one had seemed to notice 
 them, and Peggy hoped that their incon- 
 spicuous location would prevent any unwelcome 
 attention. 
 
 " After all," she thought sensibly, "it's a 
 perfectly respectable place, and perhaps it's 
 not considered queer for girls to come alone." 
 Unconsciously her fear of arousing unfavor- 
 able comment rendered her unusually subdued, 
 and the other girls took their cue from her, 
 speaking in their lowest voices, smiling dis- 
 creetly, and otherwise conducting themselves 
 with as much decorum as if there had been a 
 chaperone apiece. 
 
 After some discussion they decided on welsh 
 rarebit, and Hildegarde also ordered coffee and 
 rolls. The rarebit came in due time, an island 
 of toast in a seething lava-lake of rarebit. 
 The girls sniffed appreciatively and exchanged 
 smiles. "To think I didn't know I was 
 hungry," Amy exclaimed. 
 
 "I wish I could make my rarebits smooth like
 
 QUITE INFORMAL 163 
 
 this," sighed Peggy. "It looks so wonderful 
 that I hate to eat it." 
 
 Their faces cheerful, but their manners still 
 decorously subdued, the four girls attacked the 
 dainty which has so undesirable a reputation 
 in the matter of dreams. Though Hildegarde 
 was the only one of the four who had not done 
 justice to her dinner, all were young enough 
 to feel hungry at the sight of the tempting dish. 
 The islands of toast vanished as if submerged 
 by a tidal wave. The miniature lava lakes 
 gradually disappeared, and the big plate of rolls 
 was so diminished by successive onslaughts 
 that the few remaining had a lonely look. 
 
 Priscilla was buttering the end of her roll 
 when, in involuntary emphasis of something she 
 was saying, she pressed it more energetically 
 than she realized. As if determined to escape 
 the fate of its comrades, the fragment flew 
 from her fingers. It cleared the space be- 
 tween that table and the next as if it had been 
 winged, and then made sure of escape by 
 dropping in the coffee cup of a young man in 
 eye glasses, who was composedly eating fried 
 oysters.
 
 164 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 The young man looked up, startled as a 
 splash of coffee on his cheek challenged his at- 
 tention. He looked about in all directions and 
 at length his inquiring gaze came to the table 
 where sat the agonized Priscilla. Here, alas ! 
 it halted. For as she had seen the bewildering 
 gyrations of the fragment of Priscilla 's roll, 
 Amy had burst into an astonished giggle and had 
 continued to giggle without cessation. Hilde- 
 garde, too, had lost interest in the remnant of 
 her meal, and sat leaning her head on her hand, 
 speechless with laughter. As for Peggy and 
 Priscilla, they were looking at each other in 
 silent stupefaction, their flaming cheeks seem- 
 ingly proclaiming their guilt. It was no 
 wonder the young man in eye-glasses looked no 
 farther. He had found the ones responsible. 
 
 For an agonizing moment Priscilla sat un- 
 certain what to do. Then summoning her com- 
 mon sense to her aid, she turned to the sole oc- 
 cupant of the next table. "I am very sorry," 
 she said with that dignity that was Priscilla 's 
 own. "A piece of roll slipped from my fingers 
 when I was buttering it, and flew across to your 
 table. It it is in your coffee cup."
 
 QUITE INFORMAL 165 
 
 The young man looked into his cup and per- 
 ceived the floating fragment. When again he 
 lifted his eyes to Priscilla 's he was smiling. 
 "I thought some acquaintance had thrown 
 something at me to attract my attention," he 
 explained. 
 
 "No," said Priscilla. "It was an un- 
 fortunate accident. I beg your pardon." 
 And then she turned to her own coffee, and 
 seemingly gave it her attention, though so in- 
 tense was her excitement that she might as 
 well have been drinking warm water as the 
 coffee for which the Green Parrot was famous. 
 
 Peggy was proud of the dignity with which 
 Priscilla had met a difficult situation, but poor 
 Priscilla was not to find it easy to preserve that 
 dignity. Amy was still giggling, her face 
 wearing an expression of suffering, due to the 
 exhausting effect of continuous laughter. 
 Across the table Hildegarde pressed her hand- 
 kerchief to her eyes and moaned softly. And 
 all at once it seemed to Priscilla that she must 
 shriek with laughter or die. 
 
 A moment later Peggy uttered an ejaculation 
 of consternation, for the tears were running
 
 166 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 down Priscilla T s cheeks. She sat perfectly 
 erect, her eyes upon the table, and her only 
 sign of emotion those tell-tale tears. Peggy 
 was really alarmed. 
 
 "Priscilla, you mustn't take it so to heart. 
 It wasn't anything. Don't cry." 
 
 ''But I must do something," responded Pris- 
 cilla in a strangled voice. "Oh, can't we get 
 away?" 
 
 Her laughing companions sobered at the dis- 
 covery that Priscilla was in tears. Hilde- 
 garde called the waiter and demanded her 
 check. But before they could get away, the 
 young man in eye-glasses had risen and crossed 
 to their table. 
 
 "I hope you're not worrying about that 
 roll," he said, looking down dismayed at Pris- 
 cilla 's tear-wet cheeks. "It's not worth think- 
 ing of twice, you know." 
 
 Seeing that Priscilla was incapable of re- 
 plying, Peggy came to her friend's assistance. 
 "Of course it was only an accident," she said, 
 "But it made her a little nervous." 
 
 "So I see. I'm terribly sorry. If I could 
 be of any service " The young man's face
 
 QUITE INFORMAL 167 
 
 was troubled, his manner earnest. Peggy ap- 
 preciated the sincerity of his feeling, even while 
 she longed to take him by the ear and lead him 
 to the door. For heads* were turning in their 
 direction from all over the room. They were 
 the observed of all observers. 
 
 "Oh, thank you," said Peggy hastily, "she 
 will feel all right as soon as she gets outside. 
 This room is so warm," she added rather 
 inanely. To her enormous relief the waiter 
 appeared with Hildegarde's change. Hilde- 
 garde tipped him extravagantly, rammed her 
 remaining bills into her purse, and all four 
 girls started for the door. The young man 
 with the eye-glasses remained standing, staring 
 after them, and Peggy's cheeks crimsoned as 
 she realized the attention they were attract- 
 ing. 
 
 She was quite sure she had a case of hysterics 
 on her hands when, once outside, Priscilla be- 
 gan to laugh. It started in a little smothered 
 giggle which soon had developed into peals of 
 laughter. Peggy was terrified. "Priscilla," 
 she cried, "for Heaven's sake 
 
 But Amy who had begun laughing sympathet-
 
 168 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 ically, as soon as Priscilla started off, checked 
 herself to remonstrate. 
 
 "Let her alone, Peggy. All that ails her is 
 she wanted to laugh and couldn't, and I don't 
 know anything that hurts worse. Isn't that it, 
 Priscilla?" 
 
 Priscilla could not answer in words, but she 
 nodded vehemently and laughed and wiped her 
 wet eyes and laughed on till she sobbed. And 
 then all at once she stopped short, drew a long 
 breath, and exclaimed, "I feel better." 
 
 They made their way to the street cars, dis- 
 cussing the late unpleasantness with much ani- 
 mation and making use of many lurid adjec- 
 tives. It was Hildegarde who exclaimed, 
 "Don't you wish you knew who he was?" 
 She referred, of course, to the young man in 
 eye-glasses. 
 
 Priscilla stiffened. "Mercy, no! I hope he 
 was a stranger in town, stopping over a train, 
 and that I '11 never lay eyes on him again. ' ' 
 
 But that wish, though it came from the 
 depths of Priscilla 's heart, was not destined to 
 come true.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 GOOD-BY 
 
 COLLEGE had opened; but they had slipped 
 into it so quietly that there hardly seemed to be 
 a break. For Peggy and Priscilla, perhaps, 
 there was a bit of a pang at the realization that 
 this was the last year of what would probably 
 be one of the sweetest periods in their lives to 
 look back on ; and they privately vowed to make 
 it rich in experience and the beauty of living. 
 Ruth and Amy, like Southey 's brother who said 
 that "no young man believes that he will ever 
 die," felt that college life would never, could 
 never, end. So a week after the beginning of 
 classes found the four girls trying conscien- 
 tiously to live in the present, and stifling vague, 
 tantalizing memories of the past three months. 
 
 A number of letters passed between Nelson 
 Hallowell and his friend in Oklahoma before 
 the great step was decided on. And it must 
 be confessed that in the meantime Ruth's 
 
 169
 
 170 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 college work suffered. Nelson came almost 
 every evening to pour into her attentive ears the 
 story of his hopes and ambitions, and Euth 
 listened with the happy confidence that her ap- 
 proval meant more to him than to any one in 
 the world. 
 
 Ruth and Nelson were living in an enchanted 
 world, where perfect understanding took the 
 place of speech. Nelson did not feel himself 
 at liberty to say to her the thing that was con- 
 stantly in his thoughts. The salary Mr. Flynn 
 had paid him had not enabled him to save any 
 money, and his venture in Oklahoma, promising 
 as he believed it, was, after all, only a venture, 
 with a possibility of failure. Nelson knew that 
 he himself was bound fast and irrevocably, but 
 he wanted to leave Euth free as air. Yet he 
 talked to her with the assurance that she knew 
 all he was in honor bound not to say, and her 
 look, as she listened, confirmed that certainty. 
 
 Those weeks during which the matter was 
 being settled were a happy time for both of 
 them. Youth has a way of making the most of 
 a present joy, regardless of what the future 
 has in store, and while this seems very short-
 
 GOOD-BY 171 
 
 sighted to some older people, who can always 
 look ahead far enough to be miserable, the 
 young will probably continue to enjoy to-day's 
 sunshine regardless of the weather prognosti- 
 cator, who assures them of a storm in the 
 middle of the week with a drop in temperature. 
 Nelson and Euth saw as much of each other as 
 they could, and looked no further than a happi- 
 ness born of a confidence and understanding. 
 
 But the thing was settled at last, and the 
 generous offer of Nelson's soldier friend 
 definitely accepted. Nelson gave Mr. Flynn 
 notice, and that irritable gentleman promptly 
 lost his temper, and accused his reliable clerk 
 of folly and ingratitude. Later he realized his 
 mistake, and offered to raise his salary. But 
 Nelson was as little moved by Mr. Flynn 's 
 smiles as he had been by his frowns, and Mr. 
 Flynn promptly relapsed into his former irasci- 
 bility. 
 
 "The war spoiled a lot of you young fellows. 
 You're sick of hard work. Loafing is the only 
 thing that appeals to you." 
 
 "I never heard," laughed Nelson, "that life 
 on a cattle ranch was considered a soft snap."
 
 172 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 "Well, if it isn't, you'll soon give it up, " said 
 Mr. Flynn disagreeably. "An easy berth is 
 what your 're looking for, and it's my opinion 
 that you'll look some time before you find it." 
 
 The next two weeks fairly flew. Nelson was 
 getting his necessary outfit, and every after- 
 noon, on the way home, he stopped to exhibit to 
 Euth his latest purchases. And now the time 
 had come when it was hard for Euth to smile 
 and show the proper interest. Sometimes 
 when she remembered that the decision had 
 been left to her, and that she had brought this 
 on herself, her heart almost failed her. It 
 would have been so much easier to have gone 
 on in the old way. The thought of the 
 thousands of miles that would soon stretch be- 
 tween Nelson and herself gave her a weak feel- 
 ing in the knees. They had a great deal to say 
 in those days about letters but each realized, 
 only two well, that the best letter ever penned 
 is a poor substitute for the exchange of speech 
 and of smiles. 
 
 The day of Nelson's departure Euth went 
 through the customary routine with a curious 
 sense of unreality. She had suggested
 
 GOOD-BY 173 
 
 Nelson 's coming to dinner, but he had declined, 
 and she would never know what that refusal 
 cost him. 
 
 "I'd love to, Ruth. You don't know how I'd 
 love to. But I think I should take my last meal 
 with mother. ' ' 
 
 1 'Yes, Nelson, I think so, too." 
 
 * * She says she won 't go down to the station to 
 see me off," Nelson went on. " She's been 
 keen about my going from the start, but now 
 that it 's come to the point, it 's harder than she 
 thought." 
 
 Ruth reflected that she could sympathize with 
 Mrs. Hallowell perfectly. 
 
 "The train goes at ten," Nelson continued 
 with a sprightly air that would not have de- 
 ceived the most gullible, "so I'll have plenty of 
 time to bore you stiff before you see the last of 
 me." 
 
 Ruth forced the smile his jest demanded. 
 "You know we're all going to the station with 
 you," she said. "Even Bob Carey's coming." 
 
 "I hope that Hitchcock won't show up," ex- 
 claimed Nelson apprehensively. 
 
 Ruth laughed. "No, I don't think Horace
 
 174 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 expects to honor us. Isn't it the queerest 
 thing," she added, "what Priscilla can see in 
 him?" 
 
 "I should say so. Priscilla 's one of the 
 finest girls you'd meet in a day's journey, and 
 Hitchcock is a nut. I shouldn 't think she could 
 stand it to have him around. Though I sup- 
 pose," concluded Nelson with customary 
 modesty, "that Priscilla thinks just the same 
 about you and me. ' ' 
 
 "Priscilla! She wouldn't dare." Ruth's 
 indignation was so intense that Nelson shouted 
 with laughter, but it warmed his heart, never- 
 theless. 
 
 In that last quick-moving Saturday, Euth 
 saw Nelson for a few moments in the morning, 
 and again about three in the afternoon. His 
 stay was short and rather unsatisfactory for he 
 had some last errands to attend to, and his 
 mind was so full of them that his thoughts 
 wandered from what he was saying, and he 
 left his sentences unfinished in the most irri- 
 tating fashion. 
 
 After he had answered a question of Ruth's 
 in a way which showed he had hardly heard
 
 GOOD-BY 175 
 
 what she had said, he looked up quickly at her 
 half-vexed exclamation, laughed, and jumped 
 to his feet. 
 
 ''It's no use, Euth," he said. "I'm one of 
 the fellows who's good for only one thing at a 
 time. I'll attend to these thousand-and-one 
 things that have been left over, and I'll see you 
 about eight o 'clock to-night. That will give us 
 time for a nice little visit." 
 
 Up till that time the hours had fairly flown. 
 Now they dragged. Euth watched the clock 
 and waited for the tiresome, leisurely hour 
 hand to point to eight. The clan was to gather 
 at a little after nine, and she was thankful when 
 Graham departed for Peggy's shortly after 
 finishing dinner. Peggy would keep him till the 
 last minute. Peggy would understand. Euth 
 had taken great pains in dusting the living- 
 room that morning, and she looked around it 
 thinking that it made a picture of cosy com- 
 fort Nelson might be glad to carry with him. 
 
 It was eight o'clock at last. Euth straight- 
 ened a book on the table, brushed a speck of 
 dust from her gown, and sat down facing the 
 door. There were quick steps on the side walk,
 
 176 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 and she never doubted that they would come on 
 up the walk, and then up the steps, and she 
 meant to have the door open before he had time 
 to ring. But the footsteps went on and the 
 minute hand of the clock was also moving. 
 
 At quarter past eight Euth was nervous. 
 She got up and down, adjusted the window 
 shades, changed the arrangement of the chairs, 
 fussed with the flowers on the mantel, looked at 
 herself in the mirror, and did something to her 
 hair. At half past eight she sat very still, 
 frowning slightly and biting her lip. At 
 quarter of nine her cheeks had reddened and 
 she tapped the carpet with the toe of her shoe. 
 And at nine o 'clock her heart gave a jump and 
 she forgot how near she had come to being 
 angry. For the footsteps for which she had 
 waited were coming up the walk. 
 
 ' ' Hello ! " It was Priscilla 's voice. ' ' Don 't 
 tell me I'm the first one." 
 
 ' l The others will be here in a minute, ' ' Ruth 
 replied in an even voice. "Come right in and 
 take off your coat, Priscilla, for this room's 
 awfully warm." 
 
 Priscilla complied with her friend's sugges-
 
 GOOD-BY 177 
 
 tion, and glanced at her admiringly. She 
 thought she had never seen Ruth look so pretty. 
 "You've got a lovely color to-night," she ex- 
 claimed. 
 
 "It's just because it's so hot here. I always 
 get flushed when I'm warm." 
 
 Priscilla was looking around the room as 
 if in search of something. "Why, where 's 
 Nelson?" 
 
 ' l He '11 be here right away. You know there 
 are always so many things to be attended to in 
 the last few minutes." But though Ruth 
 gave this explanation with a matter-of-fact 
 cheerfulness that deceived even Priscilla who 
 knew her so well, she was seething inwardly. 
 So this was all he cared. He had sacrificed their 
 quiet hour together. Now there would be a 
 crush and a crowd and everybody talking at 
 once, and no chance to say any of the things 
 she had saved up for their last evening. 
 
 Not that she cared. Ruth flung up her head 
 and laughed gaily at something Priscilla was 
 telling. Her hands were cold and her mouth 
 felt very dry, and her heart was pounding 
 furiously. Nelson could come when he was
 
 178 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 ready, and so that he didn't miss the train, it 
 made no difference to her. 
 
 Amy and Bob were next to arrive. Then 
 came Peggy and Graham. " Nelson's late, 
 isn't he?" said Peggy with an uneasy glance 
 at the clock. "He hasn't any time to spare." 
 
 "I'll put on my things so we'll all be ready 
 to start when he gets here," Ruth returned 
 casually. She had put on a little blue frock, of 
 which Nelson was especially fond, for the last 
 evening, and she was glad to conceal it by a long 
 coat. Her hand trembled as she pinned her 
 hat in place. She hoped Nelson Hallowell 
 wasn't conceited enough to suppose she cared 
 whether he came at one hour or another. 
 
 It was twenty minutes past nine when Nelson 
 arrived, and he looked rather white and shaken. 
 As he had left for camp two years before, his 
 mother had stood smiling in the doorway to 
 watch him go. When it was whispered that 
 they were going across, and he had told her she 
 was not likely to see him again till the war was 
 over, she had kissed him with lips that did not 
 tremble. But then she had' been lifted above 
 herself by the exalted spirits of the times.
 
 GOOD-BY 179 
 
 Now she had no sense of patriotic service to 
 sustain her. She realized that she was no 
 longer a young woman, that life was uncertain, 
 and that her boy was going very far away. 
 Over their last meal together she had broken 
 down, and wept as Nelson had never seen his 
 mother weep in all his life. 
 
 It is not to Nelson's discredit that he had 
 forgotten Ruth. Or if that is saying too much, 
 his thought of her was vague and shadowy. 
 Nelson's father had died when he was a little 
 boy, and through the years that he was growing 
 to manhood, his mother and he had been every- 
 thing to each other. The sight of her grief was 
 torturing. He had put his arms about her, and 
 comforted her as best he could. He had 
 offered to give up the whole thing, and had 
 started to go out to telegraph his friend in 
 Oklahoma that he was not coming. That, more 
 than anything else, had helped her to regain 
 her self-control. As mothers have been doing 
 from time immemorial she wiped her wet eyes 
 and tried to smile, that he might go on his great 
 adventure without a shadow on his heart. 
 Throughout that distressing, solemn, sacred
 
 180 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 time, it had never occurred to Nelson to look at 
 the clock. The thought of Ruth had hardly 
 crossed his mind. Even on his way to her 
 home, he was still thinking of the mother he 
 had left. 
 
 It was Graham who, hearing Nelson's step 
 outside, rushed to admit him. Nelson entered, 
 blinking a little in the bright light of the room, 
 and speaking first to one and then another. 
 Euth in the corner by the fireplace was talking 
 to Bob Carey, and was so interested that she 
 only glanced in Nelson's direction, to toss him 
 a smiling nod, and then resume her conver- 
 sation with Bob. Nelson gave a little start 
 as if some one had pinched him in the mid- 
 dle of a dream and he had suddenly awak- 
 ened. 
 
 ''Well, old man," remarked Graham cheer- 
 fully, "you haven't left yourself much leeway. 
 It's just about time to start." 
 
 "I yes, I suppose it is." Nelson looked in 
 Ruth's direction and then looked quickly away. 
 As for Ruth, she was so absorbed by what Rob 
 Carey was saying, that her brother had to re- 
 peat his remark for her benefit. "Come, Ruth.
 
 GOOD-BY 181 
 
 Better get a move on. We haven't any time to 
 waste.'' 
 
 ''Oh, is it really time to start?" Ruth asked 
 carelessly. * ' I hadn 't noticed. ' ' And with that 
 fib on her conscience, she rose and joined the 
 others. 
 
 Fond as Peggy was of Ruth, that evening 
 she could have shaken her in her exasperation. 
 For on the walk to the street-car, Ruth clung 
 to her arm and chattered unceasingly. As 
 Graham stuck doggedly to Peggy's other side 
 and Bob was with Amy, Nelson and Priscilla 
 found themselves walking together. But since 
 Nelson was too dazed for speech, and Priscilla 
 was wondering what Horace would say to this 
 juxtaposition, they walked in an almost un- 
 broken silence. 
 
 It was no better on the street car. Peggy 
 maneuvered shamelessly to put Nelson and 
 Ruth into the one vacant seat, but Ruth slipped 
 past and took her seat beside a fat woman, who 
 left so little space that Ruth was in imminent 
 danger of falling into the aisle, whenever the 
 car turned the corner. In Peggy 's opinion such 
 a catastrophe would have been no more than
 
 182 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 she deserved. Peggy had to take the place she 
 had designed for Ruth, and did her best to be 
 agreeable, but Nelson's wandering replies 
 showed the futility of her efforts. 
 
 A slight delay on the way brought them to 
 the station less than ten minutes before train 
 time. Nelson's tickets were bought, of course, 
 and his reservations made. They stood in a 
 group in the station, waiting-room and said the 
 aimless things people generally say five minutes 
 before train-time. All but Ruth, that is. 
 When Nelson looked at her he found her at- 
 tention absorbed by an Italian family, whose 
 bundles and babies occupied the nearest row of 
 seats. 
 
 It was Graham who again took on himself 
 the ungracious duty of calling Nelson's atten- 
 tion to the flight of time. "I guess you'd bet- 
 ter go aboard, Nelson. You don't want to stand 
 right here in the station, and miss the train." 
 
 Nelson started violently. "Oh, no," he re- 
 plied, " certainly not." He turned to Bob 
 Carey and shook hands with him, murmuring a 
 mechanical good-by. Amy stood at Bob's side 
 and Nelson held out his hand to her.
 
 GOOD-BY 183 
 
 Amy had shared Peggy's feeling of vexation 
 with Euth, and like Peggy had resented her 
 sense of impotence. Neither one of them would 
 have hesitated to take Euth roundly to task for 
 her conduct, but it was impossible to scold her 
 in Nelson's presence, and after he had started 
 on his long journey westward it would be too 
 late. But as Amy looked into the young fel- 
 low's down-cast face, a brilliant inspiration 
 came to her aid. She grasped his hand, pulled 
 herself up on tiptoes, and kissed the astonished 
 youth squarely on the lips. "Good-by, Nelson, 
 and good luck. ' ' 
 
 Peggy, the next in line, saw her friend's ruse, 
 and seconded her admirably. It was impos- 
 sible to tell whether Nelson blushed at the sec- 
 ond kiss, for the flaming color due to Amy's 
 salute still dyed him crimson. Priscilla pushed 
 aside the obtrusive thought of Horace, and 
 backed up the others. And then Nelson came 
 to Euth. 
 
 For a moment Euth had been in a quandary. 
 After their warm friendship, to part with Nel- 
 son with a formal handshake when the other 
 girls had kissed him, would be to proclaim
 
 184 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 publicity that she was angry, and Euth did not 
 wish to seem angry, but only indifferent. And 
 yet if she kissed Nelson good-by, she had a sus- 
 picion that the barrier her pride had built be- 
 tween them would melt like mist in the sun. 
 She raised her eyes and met his, those honest 
 eyes in which she read bewilderment and grief 
 and appeal and something greater than all. 
 And then, all at once, her resentment seemed 
 incomprehensiblely petty. Whatever the rea- 
 son that Nelson had come late, it was not be- 
 cause he did not care. And so their first kiss 
 was exchanged in the garish light of a railway 
 waiting-room, with the calls of the trainmen 
 blending with the unmelodious crying of babies, 
 with travelers coming and going, and a little 
 circle of friends standing by and taking every- 
 thing in. But there are some experiences it 
 is impossible to spoil. 
 
 "All aboard," cried Graham, and carried 
 Nelson away. Euth slipped her arms through 
 Peggy's, and turned toward the door, swallow- 
 ing hard at something that refused to be swal- 
 lowed. 
 
 "If ever a girl deserved a scolding!" said
 
 "SHE RAISED HER EVES AND MET HIS
 
 GOOD-BY 185 
 
 Peggy in the tenderest tones imaginable. "But 
 I'm not going to do it now, because at the last 
 minute you redeemed yourself thanks to 
 Amy. ' '
 
 CHAPTEE XIII 
 
 PEGGY GIVES A DINNER PARTY 
 
 RUTH moped after Nelson's departure. Just 
 how much her depression was due to missing 
 him, and how much was the the result of self- 
 reproach, she could not have told. Each time 
 she realized his absence she remembered with 
 a pang the hurt wonder of his face that night in 
 the station. It did not help matters that Nel- 
 son seemed to consider himself entirely to 
 blame for what had happened, and had written 
 her from the train a most humble apology for 
 failing to be at her home at eight o'clock as 
 he had promised. In fact, his assumption that 
 she could not possibly be in the wrong only 
 made Ruth the more conscious of her pettiness. 
 
 It was largely on Ruth's account that Peggy 
 resolved on her dinner party. For after scold- 
 ing Ruth soundly, and giving her to under- 
 stand that she was very much ashamed of her, 
 Peggy had set herself resolutely to cheer her 
 
 186
 
 PEGGY GIVES A DINNER 187 
 
 despondent friend. On the Friday following 
 Nelson's departure something went wrong with 
 the heating plant at college, and the classes 
 were dismissed at ten o'clock. At once Peggy 
 determined to celebrate. 
 
 "Father and mother have gone away for 
 the week end, and Dick's going home with his 
 chum after school, and I shan't see him till 
 bed-time. Come to dinner all of you. We'll 
 have an old-fashioned good time." 
 
 The recipients of this invitation accepted 
 promptly. They were in the rather hilarious 
 mood which for some reason characterizes the 
 most ambitious student when school is dis- 
 missed for the day, college seniors as well as 
 kindergarten tots. * * Only you must let us come 
 over and help you, ' ' stipulated Ruth. 
 
 "Yes, come on, and then if anything doesn't 
 turn out well, I can blame some of you. I 
 wonder do you know, I've half a mind to in- 
 vite Hildegarde Carey." 
 
 The others approved, especially Priscilla who 
 had a great admiration for Bob's attractive 
 sister. 
 
 "She took us out that evening, you know,"
 
 188 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 Peggy continued. "She's always been awfully 
 sweet to me and I've never done anything for 
 her. The only thing well, I feel a little bit 
 afraid of her." 
 
 "I'll testify that she can eat a very simple 
 meal and seem to enjoy it." And Amy chuc- 
 kled as she always did when she recalled the 
 first time Hildegarde had sat at her table. 
 
 Peggy laughed understandingly. "I think 
 I'll ask her. I've always thought it was a sort 
 of snobbishness to be ashamed to give your best 
 to people who have more than you do. Though 
 I'm not sure that a party of girls will appeal to 
 her." 
 
 Apparently she had misjudged Hildegarde. 
 For the latter 's tone, when she responded 
 to Peggy's invitation given over the phone a 
 few minutes later, was unmistakably enthu- 
 siastic. 
 
 "A dinner party and just girls! How cute! 
 I'd adore to come, Peggy, but would it put you 
 out if I brought my friend Virginia Dunbar. 
 She 's a New York girl who 's making me a little 
 visit and she's perfectly fascinating." 
 
 "Why, bring her of course. I shall love to
 
 PEGGY GIVES A DINNER 189 
 
 meet her." Peggy's hospitality rendered her 
 response sufficiently fervent, but as she hung 
 up the receiver, her face wore a thoughtful ex- 
 pression. The little dinner party, which had 
 seemed pure fun when her three chums were her 
 prospective guests, had become a responsibility, 
 as soon as Hildegarde was added to the number. 
 And with a New York girl coming, it seemed 
 distinctly formidable. 
 
 It had not previously occurred to Peggy that 
 the house was not in suitable order for the 
 reception of guests, but now as she looked about 
 the dining-room its shortcomings were pain- 
 fully evident. She donned a long apron and 
 a sweeping cap, and set resolutely to work. 
 When the dining room was swept and garnished, 
 the living room across the hall suffered com- 
 parison, and Peggy gave that equally care- 
 ful attention. And as by this time she was on 
 her mettle, she went to work cleaning the silver. 
 The twelve o'clock whistles surprised her in 
 this exacting task, and she swallowed a peanut- 
 butter sandwich by way of luncheon, promising 
 herself to make up for this abstemiousness at 
 dinner, Peggy was not one of the tempera-
 
 190 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 mental cooks who cannot enjoy their own cook- 
 ing. 
 
 At half past one she hurried forth with her 
 market basket to make the necessary pur- 
 chases. She left by the back door and took 
 the key with her. A little after two she was 
 back again, the loaded basket on her arm. 
 Peggy set her burden down, rubbed her ach- 
 ing muscles, and felt in her coat pocket for the 
 key. Then she felt in the other pocket. Then 
 she continued to search one pocket and then 
 the other, with increasing evidences of con- 
 sternation. But it was of no use. The key 
 was gone. 
 
 "I must have had it in my hand and laid it 
 down on the counter somewhere," thought 
 Peggy. 1 1 Was ever anything so exasperating. ' ' 
 She left the basket outside the locked door, 
 and hurriedly retraced her steps. The butcher, 
 whom she had visited first, shook his head in 
 answer to her question. No, he had not seen 
 a stray door-key. It was the same at the gro- 
 .cer's, the same at the bakery where she had 
 bought Parker-house rolls. Peggy walked home 
 over the route she had traversed, her eyes
 
 PEGGY GIVES A DINNER 191 
 
 glued to the side-walk, but she did not find the 
 key. 
 
 Ruth was waiting for her by the front steps. 
 ' ' I thought I 'd come over and help you. I hope 
 you haven't finished everything." 
 
 ' ' I haven 't even started, ' ' replied Peggy in a 
 hollow voice, and explained the situation. Ruth 
 was a girl of resources and at once she had a 
 bright idea. 
 
 " Peggy, our front door key looks a good bit 
 like yours. Perhaps it will open the door. 
 I'll run over and get it." 
 
 "Then, fly," pleaded Peggy, "It's simply aw- 
 ful to be locked out of your house when you have 
 a million things to do. ' ' 
 
 Ruth sped on her errand at a pace which 
 satisfied even the impatient Peggy, and re- 
 turned with a key which really did look like 
 the latch key with whose appearance Peggy was 
 most familiar. Hopefully she inserted it in 
 the appropriate key-hole. Patiently she turned 
 it this way and that. The latch key was like 
 a great many people, encouraging one's ex- 
 pectations by almost doing what it was asked 
 to do, but never quite succeeding. In the end
 
 192 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 Peggy mournfully relinquished all hope of en- 
 tering the house by its aid. 
 
 "I can't waste any more time on that key. 
 It won 't work, and I Ve got to get in. ' ' 
 
 "How about the windows," suggested Ruth. 
 
 "The windows on the first floor are all locked, 
 for I made sure of that before I started out." 
 
 "If we could borrow a ladder " 
 
 "I don't know anybody who owns a ladder. 
 No, there's just one chance as far as I can 
 see. I've always wondered if I could get in 
 through the coal shute and now I'm going to 
 see." 
 
 "But, Peggy, it's so dirty." 
 
 "I know, but it's got to be done." 
 
 ' ' You might get stuck, ' ' exclaimed Ruth, turn- 
 ing pale. "Wait a little, Peggy. Perhaps 
 something will happen." 
 
 "Unless an air ship comes along and takes 
 me to a second story window, I can't think of 
 anything that could happen that would be of 
 any help to me." 
 
 The narrow, inclined passage through which 
 the coal was chuted from the side walk to the 
 crellar bin, looked small enough and black enough
 
 PEGGY GIVES A DINNER 193 
 
 to justify Ruth's forebodings. But Peggy's im- 
 patience had reached the point where anything 
 seemed better than inaction. She lowered her- 
 self into the chute, and when she released her 
 hold of the edge, her descent was so rapid that 
 Ruth shrieked. But after a moment of sus- 
 pense she heard an encouraging rattle of coal, 
 and then steps slowly ascending the cellar steps. 
 A little later the front door was shaken vio- 
 lently without opening, however, and Peggy's 
 face presently appeared at one of the living- 
 room windows. Regardless of the fact that 
 her friend was attempting to tell her something, 
 Ruth screamed with laughter, for Peggy's face 
 was so begrimed as to suggest that her habitual 
 occupation was that of a chimney-sweep. Ruth's 
 laughter was short-lived, however, for raising 
 her voice, Peggy made herself heard, and with 
 an accent of authority by no means character- 
 istic. 
 
 * * Stop laughing, Ruth, and help me. In fool- 
 ing with your key I've done something to that 
 wretched lock, and now I can't open the door 
 even from the inside." 
 
 "The front door?"
 
 194 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 "I can't open either door," cried Peggy. "I 
 can't open any door. The only way to get into 
 the house is by the window, and Hildegarde 
 Carey is coming to dinner and a girl from New 
 York." 
 
 "What do you want me to do, Peggy?" Euth 
 was so carried away by her friend's excitement 
 that for the moment she was unable to see any- 
 thing humorous in the situation. 
 
 "Bring me my market basket, first. It's on 
 the back steps. And then find a locksmith and 
 bring him here. Don't be satisfied with hav- 
 ing him say he '11 come. Bring him with you. ' ' 
 
 Ruth hurried to the back of the house, se- 
 cured the heavy basket, and returned with it 
 to the living room window. And then she as- 
 tonished Peggy by setting the basket down and 
 beginning to laugh hysterically. 
 
 "What on earth" 
 
 "Oh, Peggy, please excuse me. I really did- 
 n 't mean to laugh, but honestly you 're the fun- 
 niest sight I've ever seen. You're striped just 
 like a zebra." 
 
 Curiosity led Peggy to consult the mirror 
 over the mantel. But instead of laughing as
 
 PEGGY GIVES A DINNER 195 
 
 Euth had done, she uttered a tragic groan. 
 
 "It's going to take a terrible time to clean 
 that off, if it ever does come off. Oh, Ruth, 
 hurry! When I think of all that will have to 
 be done before six o'clock, my head just whirls." 
 
 Ruth took a hasty departure and Peggy, hav- 
 ing carried the basket to the kitchen, rushed 
 upstairs to remove all traces of her recent novel 
 entry. As this necessitated an entire change 
 of clothing and the use of a prodigious amount 
 of soap and hot water, her toilet consumed more 
 time than she could well spare. But at length, 
 clean and extremely pink, and attired in a little 
 frock not too good for getting dinner and yet 
 good enough to pass muster at the table, she 
 rushed downstairs and attacked her vegetables. 
 And still no sign of Ruth, bringing the lock- 
 smith. 
 
 About five o'clock Priscilla arrived ready to 
 lend a hand. Peggy answered her ring at the 
 window, instead of at the door, and after a 
 brief conversation, the tall Priscilla made an 
 unconventional entry. Amy arriving twenty 
 minutes later was admitted by the same en- 
 trance. The girls made themselves useful and
 
 196 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 speculated on what was detaining Ruth. 
 
 "I don't mind letting you girls in through 
 the window," groaned Peggy. "But it's dif- 
 ferent with Hildegarde. And that New York 
 girl. Oh, heavens!" 
 
 At five o'clock they were all too nervous to 
 know what they were doing. Peggy set skillets 
 on the stove with nothing in them, and snatched 
 them off again, just in time to avert disaster. 
 She salted vegetables and then forgot and salted 
 them all over again. Priscilla was trying to set 
 the table, and making a poor job of it, as is 
 generally the case when one is doing one thing 
 and thinking of another. Amy, after going to 
 the front window on the average of once in 
 every two minutes to see if Ruth were coming, 
 felt that she could bear inaction no longer. 
 
 "Peggy, where's the latch key to your front 
 door?" 
 
 "Hanging on a hook over by the umbrellas. 
 But you can't do anything with it. I Ve tried. " 
 
 "What a key has done a key can undo," re- 
 plied Amy, sententiously ; and possessing her- 
 self of the magic piece of steel, she climbed out 
 of the window and set to work. For fifteen or
 
 PEGGY GIVES A DINNER 197 
 
 twenty minutes she continued to fumble at the 
 lock without results, and she was on the point 
 of deciding that she might be putting in the time 
 to better advantage, when something clicked 
 encouragingly. Amy turned the knob, and 
 squealed with delight; for the door opened. 
 
 Before she could proclaim her success, Pris- 
 cilla had made a discovery. Lying across a 
 chair in the kitchen was a garment of some 
 indeterminate shade between blue and black. 
 "What's this!" asked Priscilla, pausing to 
 examine it. 
 
 "It's my old blue coat. But since I came 
 down the coal chute, I don't know as I can ever 
 wear it again. It isn't worth sending to the 
 cleaner's, and I'm afraid it's beyond my skill." 
 
 "I'll hang it in the laundry," said Priscilla, 
 and lifted the smutty garment daintily by the 
 tips of her fingers. The coat swung against 
 the round of the chair with a distinct clink, 
 and Peggy looked up quickly. "What was 
 that?" 
 
 "A button, wasn't it?" 
 
 "The buttons are cloth. And that was such 
 a queer sound like metal."
 
 198 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 Priscilla had a brilliant idea. Disregarding 
 the fact that the coal dust with which the gar- 
 ment was covered came off on her hands, she 
 began eagerly feeling along the lower edge. 
 And just as Amy heard the click that meant 
 victory, Priscilla uttered an ecstatic cry. 
 1 * The key, Peggy ! I 've found your key ! ' ' 
 "What! Where? Oh, Priscilla, not really ?" 
 " There must have been a hole in your 
 pocket," declared Priscilla. "The key slipped 
 down between the outside and the lining. You 
 can feel for yourself. There's a key all right, 
 and it's not likely it's a different one." 
 
 "Take a knife and rip up the lining at the 
 bottom," ordered Peggy recklessly. "Yes, of 
 course it 's the key. I wonder if I 'd rather have 
 that New York girl come in by the back door 
 or the front window." 
 
 That query had hardly left her lips, when 
 Amy rushed in. "I've done it, Peggy, I've 
 done it." 
 
 "You don't mean you've got the door open?" 
 "Yes, I have. I was just ready to give up 
 and then I tried again and something clicked 
 and the deed was done."
 
 PEGGY GIVES A DINNER 199 
 
 1 'And Priseilla's found the back-door key. 
 Now Kuth will come with the locksmith. " 
 
 They heard footsteps even as she spoke, and 
 then Ruth's voice explaining to the locksmith 
 that the only way to get into the house was by 
 the window. Peggy went to meet them, assum- 
 ing a very dignified air that she might not look 
 sheepish. 
 
 "We succeeded in opening the doors that 
 were troubling us, but there 's a key broken off 
 in a lock upstairs. Since you're here, you 
 might as well attend to that. Will you take him 
 upstair, Ruth. It's the door of the den." And 
 then Peggy beat a retreat to the kitchen, leav- 
 ing Ruth to propitiate the locksmith, who had 
 left his shop reluctantly, yielding to her im- 
 passioned representations of the urgency of the 
 case. 
 
 Dinner was more than half an hour late, and 
 failed to justify Peggy's reputation as a cook, 
 for some dishes were over-salted and others 
 entirely lacking that essential ingredient, while 
 the pudding was so overdone that it was neces- 
 sary to remove the top layer, and conceal de- 
 ficiencies by a quite superfluous meringue. But
 
 200 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 since Peggy had planned her dinner party with 
 the purpose of distracting Euth's thoughts, 
 she had every reason to consider it an unquali- 
 fied success.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 AT THE FOOT-BALL GAME 
 
 THE foot-ball season was on. It had opened 
 auspiciously when the university had crush- 
 ingly defeated the visitors, and the attendance 
 upon the second game showed that the public 
 anticipated a similar victory. Priscilla, sitting 
 demurely beside Horace Hitchcock, was a-tin- 
 gle with excitement. Not for the world would 
 she have allowed Horace to guess how momen- 
 tous the occasion seemed. 
 
 The tiers of seats gave a dazzling effect of 
 color. Pennants and flags and the bright- 
 colored hats of the girls made Priscilla think 
 of terraces covered with flowers. Every one 
 was talking, almost drowning out the noisy ef- 
 forts of the Varsity band. It seemed to Pris- 
 cilla an unfitting time to quote Schopenhauer, 
 but the Schopenhauer pose was Horace's latest, 
 and it recognized neither time nor seasons. 
 
 Priscilla leaned impulsively across Horace to 
 
 201
 
 202 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 wave to Amy, whose good-humored face had 
 suddenly differentiated itself from the mass of 
 surrounding faces. Horace interrupted in the 
 midst of a peculiarly pessimistic utterance, 
 looked frankly vexed, and Priscilla apologized. 
 " Excuse me, I just happened to see Amy." 
 
 "It is not a surprise to me, Priscilla, to find 
 you uninterested. It is the fate of some souls 
 to be solitary. Once I had hoped but it 
 doesn't matter." 
 
 Priscilla 's mood was a little perverse. 
 ' * Perhaps the reason you 're solitary is that you 
 choose such unpleasant paths. If you'd only 
 walk where it was nice and sunny, you'd have 
 plenty of company. ' ' 
 
 ''Plenty of company! Heavens!" Horace 
 shuddered. "That suggests the crowd. It is 
 bad enough for the body to be jostled, but at 
 least the spirit can command unhampered 
 space. I had dreamed once that you might 
 follow me to the heights where the atmosphere 
 is too rare for the multitude, but Why do we 
 cling to life, when each hour that passes 
 shatters another illusion?" 
 
 "I'm sorry I'm such a disappointment,
 
 AT THE FOOT-BALL GAME 203 
 
 Horace," Priscilla bit her lip. She was young 
 and eager. She wanted passionately to be 
 happy. She longed to respond to the charm of 
 the hour, to enjoy it ardently, and instead she 
 was obliged to listen to quotations from Scho- 
 penhauer, and think of Horace's lost illusions. 
 The thought crossed her mind that since she 
 could not make Horace happy even for an after- 
 noon, and since he was certainly not making her 
 so, it promised ill for the future. If only 
 Horace could be brought to see that they had 
 made a mistake. A little flutter of hope stirred 
 in Priscilla 's heart. 
 
 Horace was speaking in a tone of extreme 
 bitterness. ''Blessed is the man who expects 
 nothing from life, for he shall not be disap- 
 pointed. ' ' 
 
 ''Horace," began Priscilla firmly. "Don't 
 you think that we I mean wouldn't it be 
 better" 
 
 A number of people were coming into the 
 vacant places on her left. A young man seated 
 himself beside Priscilla, and involuntarily she 
 turned. Then she gave an impulsive start and 
 her ready color flamed up. The young man,
 
 204 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 who wore glasses, also started and after an 
 almost imperceptible hesitation lifted his hat. 
 Simultaneously Priscilla bowed in the most un- 
 responsive fashion possible, and looked away. 
 
 Horace stared suspiciously at her flushed 
 cheeks. Horace had never heard the story of 
 the supper at the Green Parrot, and the frag- 
 ment of roll that had sought to drown itself in 
 the stranger's coffee-cup. If Priscilla had ever 
 taken him into her confidence, he might have 
 guessed the explanation of her present 
 embarrassment. As it was, he leaned close and 
 said in her ear, "Who is that fellow?" 
 
 " Sh ! I '11 tell you afterward. ' ' 
 
 Poor Priscilla! The game to which she had 
 looked forward had become an impossible night- 
 mare. Horace's philosophical pursuits had 
 not freed him from that ready jealousy which 
 is the characteristic of small natures. He sat 
 glowering across Priscilla 's shoulder at the 
 young man seated on her left. As it was im- 
 possible to misunderstand Horace's expres- 
 sion, the young man, after his first recognition 
 of Priscilla 's presence, obligingly ignored her. 
 
 The finishing of the first half was an
 
 AT THE FOOT-BALL GAME 205 
 
 enormous relief to Priscilla. The majority of 
 the seats in the grand-stand were immediately 
 vacated. The flower bed had become kaleido- 
 scopic, with the bits of color continually re- 
 arranging themselves, as laughing girls and 
 glowing youths moved about, excitedly discuss- 
 ing the points of the game they had witnessed. 
 But though Priscilla was so ardent a fan, she 
 knew little of the game and cared less. 
 
 The young man at her left had been one of 
 the first to rise. As he moved away, Priscilla 
 turned to Horace, and without giving herself 
 time to be frightened by his forbidding expres- 
 sion, she told him the story of her first and only 
 visit to the Green Parrot. 
 
 After she had fiinished, Horace seemed to be 
 waiting for more. "Do you mean that is all!" 
 he demanded at length. 
 
 "All? Of course it's all." 
 "Then why did you blush that way?" 
 The red went out of Priscilla 's cheeks. 
 Even the color due to the frostiness of the out- 
 door air was replaced by an angry pallor. 
 "Do you mean," she said in a level voice, 
 "that you don't believe me?"
 
 206 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 "A fellow crowds in and sits down beside 
 you, a fellow I've never seen. You recognize 
 each other and then you turn crimson. You 
 refuse to give me any explanation till enough 
 time has elapsed for fabricating a story, 
 plausible from your point of view " 
 
 "Horace !" 
 
 ''And you then tell me a yarn that is no ex- 
 planation whatever. What if a piece of roll 
 did fly out of your hand and fall into some- 
 body's coffee cup! What is there in that to 
 turn you all colors of the rainbow? You're 
 stringing me, that's all." The Horace who 
 quoted Schopenhauer, and talked like the hero 
 of a society novel, had magically disappeared, 
 and in his place was a slangy young man, very 
 much like other young men in a bad temper. 
 
 "Horace," said Priscilla, her lips trembling, 
 "I've been afraid for a long time that we'd 
 made a mistake. I can't seem to please you, 
 no matter how hard I try, and probably it won 't 
 surprise you to know that I've been perfectly 
 miserable for the last six months. And it 
 seems to me the best thing we can do : 
 
 The people were beginning to come back to
 
 AT THE FOOT-BALL GAME 207 
 
 their seats. A couple just in front of Horace 
 and Priscilla turned to scream something to a 
 row of young people back of them. Priscilla 
 tightened her grip on her self control and 
 looked straight ahead. It was not the time 
 nor place for breaking an engagement. She 
 must wait till she could get away from this 
 noisy, laughing crowd. Oh, if only the dread- 
 ful afternoon were over. 
 
 The university triumphed again, as its 
 friends had anticipated. There was the usual 
 tumultous cheering, the usual frantic demon- 
 strations. Priscilla gave Horace the benefit of 
 a frigid profile. Her sense of indignity kept 
 her sternly silent. He had accused her of 
 lying, and that meant all was over between 
 them. Underneath her hurt and humiliation 
 was a sense of relief she refused to acknowledge 
 even to herself. Fortunately the young man in 
 eye-glasses did not return to take the vacant 
 place at Priscilla 's left, and the situation was 
 not further complicated by his embarrassing 
 presence. 
 
 She stood up as the crowd rose, thankful for 
 the prospect of escape. Horace put his hand
 
 208 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 lightly on her arm. "Wouldn't you like some- 
 thing hot to drink!" he asked. "Chocolate or 
 coffee?" His tone was caressing. 
 
 "I don't want anything except to get home." 
 
 "Then we'll go home, little girl. I only 
 thought you might be chilled sitting here in the 
 cold so long." 
 
 He spoke with placid tenderness, as if their 
 quarrel belonged to the Babylonian era of 
 their acquaintance. Priscilla cast a frightened 
 glance at him. She felt like a fly, partially dis- 
 entangling itself from the spider's web, only 
 to find itself again mysteriously ensnared. 
 "Don't, Horace," she exclaimed impulsively. 
 
 "Don't what, Priscilla ?" 
 
 "Don't talk as if nothing had happened. If 
 you believe that I'm a liar " 
 
 "My dear girl, don't be absurd. We'd bet- 
 ter not talk till you're calmer." 
 
 "I'm as calm as I'm likely to be when I'm 
 talking of this, Horace. If you think it a little 
 thing to doubt my word, I don't agree with 
 you." 
 
 He took her arm and bent down till his face 
 was very close to hers. "Can't you make al-
 
 AT THE FOOT-BALL GAME 209 
 
 lowances, Priscilla, for a man crazed with love 
 and jealousy?" 
 
 1 1 You haven 't any right ' ' Her voice broke 
 in a sob. She fought desperately against the 
 tears that placed her, she vaguely realized, at 
 such a serious disadvantage, but they were too 
 much for her. They splashed down on her 
 white cheeks, and the couples crowding past 
 glanced at her curiously. 
 
 " Forgive me, Priscilla. I accept your ex- 
 planation. I ask your forgiveness. I am at 
 your feet." 
 
 She was lost and she knew it, but she 
 struggled nevertheless. " We've made a mis- 
 take. We're not happy, either of us. It's 
 better to stop now than later." 
 
 ''Priscilla are you in love with him?" 
 
 Horace's tone had changed magically. It 
 was no longer tenderly matter-of-fact, but 
 tragic, desperate. She stared at him aghast. 
 "In love why, what, do you mean?" 
 
 "With that man who sat beside you to-day, 
 the man who did not dare come back and face 
 
 me." 
 
 "Horace, why, Horace, you must be crazy.
 
 210 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 I told you I had never seen him but once before, 
 and I told you what happened then." 
 
 Her disclaimer did not afford him any 
 especial relief. He was muttering to himself. 
 She caught the words, "As well now as later,'* 
 and fear gripped her heart. He did not 
 directly address her till they had left the field 
 behind, and were no longer surrounded by the 
 laughing, buoyant throng. 
 
 "I have forseen this, Priscilla. I have 
 known that happiness was not for me. But I 
 have tried to shut my eyes to the truth, to hope 
 for the impossible. Now you have thrown me 
 away like a ripped glove " 
 
 "Horace, I didn't." Even at this tragic 
 moment the thought crossed Priscilla 's mind 
 that instead of throwing away a ripped glove as 
 worthless, she would sit down conscientiously 
 to mend it. She brushed aside the reflection 
 as unworthy the occasion and hurried on, "It 
 isn't that. But if we can't be happy now, if 
 we're always irritating and hurting each 
 other " 
 
 "You don't need to say more, Priscilla. 
 You are weary of me. I had dreamed I had
 
 AT THE FOOT-BALL GAME 211 
 
 found a soul capable of constancy but no 
 matter. This is good-by, Priscilla. I cannot 
 live without you. When you take away your 
 love from me, you take away all that makes life 
 endurable. All I ask now is forgetfulness, and 
 only death can promise me that Good-by, 
 Priscilla." 
 
 Poor Priscilla! She should have known 
 better. Long before she had discovered 
 Horace's weakness for posing. It was no 
 secret to her that he experienced the keenest 
 satisfaction in contemplating the ravages 
 wrought in his nature by successive disillusion- 
 ments. Yet though she understood, at this crisis 
 her good sense failed her. In spite of herself, 
 she interpreted Horace's speech by her own 
 sincerity, and a chill terror took possession of 
 her. He would kill himself and she would be to 
 blame. Although the law would not recognize 
 her crime, at the bar of her own conscience she 
 would be adjudged guilty of murder. 
 
 "Horace," she wailed, "you did not under- 
 stand me. I want to make you happy, that's 
 all. If you think we haven't made a mistake, 
 I'm satisfied."
 
 212 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 It took a long time to reassure Horace. It 
 was so hard to explain matters satisfactorily 
 that it almost seemed as if he were stupid or 
 else wilfully perverse. Much of the time he 
 stared blankly ahead, so lost in gloomy reflec- 
 tions that she had to speak his name twice, be- 
 fore she could attract his attention. His lips 
 moved, too, but without a sound, as if he were 
 saying things too dreadful to be heard. Al- 
 together Priscilla suffered intolerably before 
 she could bring the unhappy young man to re- 
 consider his desperate purpose. 
 
 At last she was partially successful. He be- 
 came calm enough to listen to her repeated 
 assurances that all she thought of was his 
 happiness and, though his mood was still sober 
 when they parted, he had given a half-hearted 
 and reluctant promise that he would surrender, 
 for the present at least, all thought of doing 
 away with the life he valued so lightly. 
 
 Priscilla was not sure how she got through 
 the rest of the day. Her mother noticed her 
 abstraction and speculated hopefully as to 
 whether she had quarreled with Horace. 
 While Priscilla y s parents had never been let
 
 AT THE FOOT-BALL GAME 213 
 
 into the secret of the engagement, they could 
 not be unaware of the significance of Horace's 
 attentions. Like most American fathers and 
 mothers, they believed a girl should be allowed 
 to choose her own friends, unless there was 
 some decided reason to oppose her choice. Al- 
 though neither of them liked Horace, the 
 reasons for their prejudice were too vague 
 and too personal to constitute a ground for 
 opposing the intimacy. Moreover, both of 
 Priscilla's parents were of the opinion that if 
 she saw enough of the young man she would tire 
 of the mannerisms they found so objectionable. 
 
 It was not till Priscilla was safe in bed that 
 she dared relieve her over-burdened heart by 
 tears. And as she lay sobbing with the cover- 
 let over her head, she solemnly relinquished all 
 hope of happiness in this world. 
 
 "It was my vanity that got me into this," 
 lamented Priscilla. ' ' I didn 't like to feel I was 
 less attractive than the other girls and so I 
 fairly snatched at Horace. Now I've got to 
 stand by my promise if it kills me, but Oh, how 
 am I going to bear it!" 
 
 So Priscilla cried herself to sleep. And
 
 214 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 there was an added poignancy in her grief as 
 she remembered that the Combs family was 
 notably long-lived, boasting some distant 
 ancestors who had rounded out a full century 
 of existence.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE CURE 
 
 THEY were out for a walk one Saturday 
 evening, Peggy and Amy, with Graham and 
 Bob in attendance, when in front of a little 
 movie theater, Peggy stopped short. A young 
 couple stood at the ticket booth, the girl 
 giggling vacuously as the very slender youth 
 fumbled in his pockets for the price of 
 admission. Peggy's abrupt halt was not due 
 to the charm of the flaring poster, representing 
 a fat woman with a broom in pursuit of a thin 
 man attired in a bath-robe. Her attention was 
 absorbed by the young couple, who were plan- 
 ning to enjoy the show. For while she had 
 never seen the girl before, the slender youth 
 was her younger brother, Dick. 
 
 As the two disappeared behind the swing- 
 ing doors, Peggy turned to her companions. 
 "Think you could stand it!" She indicated 
 the poster by a gesture, and Bob Carey, who 
 
 215
 
 216 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 did not have the pleasure of Dick's acquaint- 
 ance, looked surprised, while Graham's face 
 wore an expression of doubt. 
 
 "I've seen just as bad, Peggy, and still sur- 
 vive," Graham said. "But I hardly think " 
 
 "Of course we can stand it, if you'd like to 
 go in, Peggy," interrupted Amy. And Bob, 
 though evidently puzzled by Peggy's taste 
 moved quickly forward to purchase the tickets, 
 thus getting ahead of Graham who was still 
 inclined to remonstrate. Graham understood 
 that Peggy was not especially pleased to dis- 
 cover Dick in company with a girl she knew 
 nothing about, especially since her manner had 
 made anything but a favorable impression in 
 the few seconds she had been under observa- 
 tion. But Dick, while considerably short of 
 his majority, was old enough to resent inter- 
 ference in his affairs, and Graham could not see 
 that Peggy would gain anything by trying to 
 play detective. 
 
 The film which constituted the evening's 
 entertainment was exceptionally poor. .The 
 comedy was of the atrocious, slap-stick sort 
 that moves the judicious almost to tears while
 
 THE CURE 217 
 
 the feature play, a melodrama only saved from 
 being a tragedy by an inconsistently happy 
 ending, was frequently so overdone as to be ex- 
 tremely funny. Peggy paid comparatively 
 little attention to the drama as it unrolled be- 
 fore her eyes. First of all she set herself to 
 locate Dick and his companion, and then to 
 evolve a plan of action suited to the require- 
 ments of the case. 
 
 Graham spoke confidentially in her ear. 
 " Don't worry, Peggy. Every boy has his silly 
 times. I did myself." Graham's manner sug- 
 gested that he was speaking from the vantage- 
 point of discreet middle age. 
 
 "Yes, I know." Peggy did not mean her 
 answer just as it sounded. She was simply 
 thinking of something else. Graham stared at 
 the inane chase, unfolding on the screen, where 
 a procession of people ran into everything 
 imaginable from a peanut vendor's cart to an 
 express train, and presently tried again. 
 "You want to be careful, Peggy. He's just at 
 the age to resent your trying to manage him." 
 
 "Yes, I know," whispered Peggy again. 
 She was fully as alive as Graham to the
 
 218 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 necessity of tact. But she was aware, too, that 
 all boys do not pass through the silly stage as 
 unscathed as Graham had done. All the loyal 
 sister in her was alert. 
 
 They sat through the depressing comedy and 
 the amusing tragedy, and then suddenly Peggy 
 rose. She had seen Dick on ahead getting to 
 his feet. In the darkness of the picture house 
 there was no danger he would recognize her. 
 Indeed it was unlikely that he would have seen 
 her even if the lights had been turned on, so 
 engrossed was he by the plump little person 
 whose head barely reached his shoulder. 
 
 Peggy and her party were outside first. All 
 unaware of the ambush, Dick came blundering 
 on. He was talking fast and the girl was 
 giggling approval. Peggy saw that she was 
 all she had feared. Her round cheeks were 
 rouged so as to give an excellent imitation of a 
 pair of Baldwin apples. Between the crimson 
 circles her nose gleamed ludicrously white, sug- 
 gesting a very recent use of her powder puff. 
 Her bobbed hair, together with her diminutive 
 frame, gave her a childish air, contradicted by 
 the shrewdness of her eyes. Peggy guessed
 
 THE CURE 219 
 
 that Dick's friend was considerably his senior, 
 probably not far from her own age. 
 
 Dick was laughing rather boisterously at one 
 of his own witticisms, when Peggy touched his 
 arm. " Hello, Dick!" Her tone was non- 
 chalant, but Dick started, straightened himself 
 and .flushed angrily. All his masculine pride 
 was up in arms at the thought of coercion. But 
 Peggy's matter-of-fact air partly allayed his 
 suspicions. 
 
 "We sat about six rows back of you," she 
 explained. "Dick, you haven't met Mr. Carey, 
 have you? My brother, Eichard, Bob." 
 
 The two shook hands and Dick realized that 
 reciprocity was in order. Under the most 
 favorable circumstances, performing the cere- 
 mony of introduction was to Dick an agonizing 
 ordeal, and the present situation increased his 
 inevitable embarrassment a hundred fold. He 
 was the color of a ripe tomato as he blurted 
 out, "Miss Coffin, let me introduce you to my 
 sister Miss Raymond and Miss Miss 
 He had forgotten Amy's name after having 
 known it all his life, and Peggy came to the 
 rescue, and introduced the others.
 
 220 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 Whatever Dick's feeling in regard to the 
 meeting, it was clear that Miss Coffin was not 
 displeased. She fixed a hypnotic gaze on Bob 
 Carey as she exclaimed, ' * Fierce name, isn 't it ! 
 But take it from me, I 'm no dead one, Coffin or 
 no coffin. ' ' 
 
 Peggy's smile gave no hint of her inward 
 anguish. "We're just going home to have 
 some oysters. Won't you and Dick come 
 along, Miss Coffin?" 
 
 Graham had difficulty in choking down an 
 impatient exclamation. What was Peggy 
 thinking of? It was bad enough for Dick to be 
 associating with a girl of this sort, but for 
 Peggy to encourage him in his folly by 
 welcoming the girl to her home, the first time 
 she had ever seen her, impressively illustrated 
 the feminine incapacity to act reasonably in a 
 crisis. While it was impossible to put his dis- 
 approval into words, Graham's manner left 
 little unexpressed. 
 
 Dick looked as if he agreed with Graham, but 
 Peggy had not addressed herself to him. And 
 as for Miss Coffin, Peggy's invitation was re- 
 sponsible for a marked increase in her spright-
 
 THE CURE 221 
 
 liness. "Eats!" she cried dramatically, "Oh, 
 boy! Lead me to it!" 
 
 They went down the street in the direction of 
 Friendly Terrace, Miss Coffin chattering 
 animatedly at Dick's elbow, and speaking 
 loudly enough to be heard easily by the others. 
 Indeed, there was ground for supposing that 
 she was willing to allow her vivacious conversa- 
 tion to make an impression on more important 
 listeners than Dick. Her youthful escort, 
 stalking awkwardly at her side, was almost as 
 silent as Graham who walked on ahead with 
 Peggy. But the silence of her brother and her 
 lover, even though it implied criticism and dis- 
 pleasure, seemingly failed to shadow Peggy's 
 spirits. She turned her head every now and 
 then to address a remark to Dick's companion, 
 and Miss Coffin showed her appreciation of the 
 friendly attitude by the request that she "cut 
 out the formal stuff." "You kids are the kind 
 that can call me Mazie," she chirruped, ap- 
 parently under the impression that she was ad- 
 dressing some one at a considerable distance. 
 
 It was perhaps as well for the success of 
 Peggy's plan tha-t neither her father nor her
 
 222 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 mother were at home. She ushered her guests 
 into the living room and insisted on their laying 
 aside their wraps. Mazie Coffin Jiaving re- 
 moved her hat, went straight as a homing 
 pigeon to the mirror over the mantel, and made 
 an unabashed and quite unnecessary use of 
 her powder puff. 
 
 "You're coming out to help me, aren't you, 
 Amy?" Peggy inquired casually. "I thought 
 I'd fix little pigs-in-blankets, you know. 
 They're awfully good, but rather fussy." 
 
 "Why, of course I'll help," responded Amy, 
 wondering if Mazie, also, would be called on to 
 render assistance. But apparently Peggy's 
 acquaintance with Mazie had not progressed to 
 that point of informality. "We'll try not to 
 be any longer than we can help," she smiled, 
 "and we'll leave you to amuse one another till 
 were ready." 
 
 Out in .the kitchen as they wrapped fat 
 oysters in blankets of bacon, pinning the latter 
 in place with wooden tooth-picks, the two girls 
 exchanged significant glances. "What's the 
 idea!" Amy asked, with the frankness of 
 long friendship.
 
 THE CURE 223 
 
 "Well, I'm not sure that it will do any good. 
 But I've got an idea Don't you know that 
 the impression a thing makes on you depends a 
 lot on the background!" 
 
 "Hm! I don't quite understand what you 
 mean." 
 
 "Well, if you see a girl on the stage with a 
 skirt nine inches long, it doesn't make the same 
 impression on you that it would if you saw her 
 in your own home." 
 
 "No, it doesn't." 
 
 "Dick's been used to nice people all his life," 
 Peggy went on, plainly trying to encourage 
 herself as well as to explain matters to Amy. 
 "A girl like this might attract his attention if 
 he saw her behind the counter of a cigar 
 store " 
 
 "Does she work in a cigar store?" 
 
 "I haven't the least idea. I only meant she 
 wouldn't seem particularly out of place in a 
 tobacco shop. But here in our home Oh, it 
 seems as though Dick must see how cheap and 
 tawdry she is." 
 
 Amy skewered a particularly juicy oyster 
 with a vicious thrust of the tooth pick. "Hope
 
 224 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 so, anyway," she said, and felt an exasperated 
 desire to box Dick's ears. 
 
 But when Peggy had left the field to Mazie 
 Coffin, she had builded better than she knew, 
 Mazie had accepted the responsibility of enter- 
 taining the masculine portion of the company 
 with extreme complacency. Never for a 
 moment had she doubted her ability to make 
 a favorable impression. As she gave her 
 smiling attention to the trio, her late escort oc- 
 cupied a very small fraction of her thoughts. 
 Dick was only a boy, a boy to whom shaving 
 was still a novel art, and whose voice cracked 
 ludicrously in moments of excitement. But 
 Graham and Bob were young men, and good 
 looking young men at that. Mazie hoped that 
 the girls would not hurry with the oysters. 
 
 As this young woman's methods were not 
 characterized by subtlety, it was not long be- 
 fore Dick realized that he was being disre- 
 garded. Mazie had eyes only for his seniors. 
 She had begun by saying, as the door closed 
 behind Peggy and Amy, "Gee, but they're 
 trusting! How do they know that I won't 
 vamp you two guys!" And when Dick, re-
 
 THE CURE 225 
 
 seating his new role of unnoticed on-looker, had 
 attempted to bear his part in the conversation, 
 Mazie had silenced him with a jocose, "What 
 are you butting in for, kid? Children must be 
 seen and not heard, you know/' 
 
 Dick Raymond was by no means a bad boy, 
 and he was just as far from being a stupid boy. 
 Mazie 's conversational advances, as she had 
 weighed out peanut brittle and caramels in 
 quarter pound lots, had flattered his vanity. 
 Dick was not accustomed to being regarded as 
 a young man, and Mazie 's manner of consider- 
 ing him worth-while game had naturally con- 
 vinced him that she was a girl of exceptional in- 
 sight. But now as she made eyes at Graham 
 and smiled at Bob, the conviction seized Dick 
 that her previous attentions had been due to 
 the fact that he was the only one of his kind 
 within reach. As was natural, the discovery 
 made him critical. He noticed the harshness 
 of Mazie 's voice, the vacuity of her giggle. 
 Her repetition of cheap slang began to jar on 
 him, even though he was himself a similar 
 offender. He looked distrustfully at the crim- 
 son cheeks, with the powdered nose gleaming
 
 226 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 whitely between. ' * I '11 be 'jiggered if it doesn 't 
 look exactly like a marshmallow, ' ' he told him- 
 self. 
 
 The possibility that Dick's mood was critical 
 did not trouble Mazie. She had looked Peggy 
 and Amy over with the complacent certainty of 
 her superior charms. Dick 's sister wasn 't a bad 
 looker, Mazie owned condescendingly, but she 
 was slow, dead slow, and nowadays the fellows 
 liked plenty of pep. Mazie prided herself, not 
 without reason, on having an abundance of that 
 essential quality. She was sorry when the fra- 
 grance of frying bacon and coffee greeted her 
 nostrils. Though Graham was stiffly polite and 
 Bob Carey plainly amused, she would have been 
 glad of a little more time. 
 
 The impromptu supper in the dining-room 
 completed Dick's disillusionment. Determined 
 not to yield any advantage she had gained 
 Mazie continued to take the lead in the conver- 
 sation. She gestured freely and frequently 
 with the hand which held her fork, even with an 
 oyster impaled on the tines. She drank her cof- 
 fee noisily. Once, Dick was sure, he saw Bob 
 choke down a laugh, though he made a pretence
 
 THE CURE 227 
 
 of coughing behind his napkin. And it was not, 
 Dick was certain, because he found her amus- 
 ing, but because he thought her ridiculous. 
 Dick glared furiously at the averted shoulder 
 of his erst-while charmer. Mazie had elected 
 to treat him like a little boy, but if she had lis- 
 tened to him, thought Dick, he could have kept 
 her from making a fool of herself. 
 
 Mazie seemed willing to linger, even after 
 Amy and Bob had taken their departure. 
 " Guess we might as well be starting," sug- 
 gested Dick, his thoughts upon the probable re- 
 turn of his father and mother, rather than on 
 his responsibility as host. 
 
 "Getting sleepy aren't you, little boy?" 
 mocked Mazie. "Don't let me keep you from 
 your downy. I can get home somehow," and 
 she glanced significantly at Graham, whose good 
 looks, for all his air of reserve, had made a 
 strong impression on her susceptible tempera- 
 ment. 
 
 When at length she left under the escort of 
 a frankly sulky Dick, she turned back to remind 
 Graham that he could always find her in 
 Streeter's Sweet Shop between the hours of
 
 228 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 nine and five. And then she took Dick's arm, 
 and went out the door, smiling back coquettishly 
 over her shoulder. 
 
 Graham hardly waited for them to be out of 
 hearing before he exploded. The evening had 
 been a great disappointment, and while Graham 
 would have resented any outside suggestion 
 that Peggy came short of absolute perfection, 
 there were times when he felt himself quite 
 capable of pointing out her errors in judgment. 
 Peggy's painstaking explanation failed to en- 
 lighten him, and while Peggy thought Graham 
 the most wonderful of men, in this instance she 
 found him disappointingly slow of comprehen- 
 sion. They did not quarrel, but they kept on 
 arguing the question long after it was clear that 
 neither would be able to take the other's 
 point of view. They were still arguing when 
 Dick returned. 
 
 Dick was in that state of irritation when 
 scolding somebody seems an indispensable lux- 
 ury. "See here, Peggy, just because you see 
 me with a girl, you don't have to start right in 
 and invite her to the house." 
 
 "Why, Dick, I thought"
 
 THE CURE 229 
 
 " Sometimes a fellow asks a girl out just so 
 he can size her up. And if he finds that she's 
 a blamed idiot, he don't want her mixed up 
 with his family. You mean all right, Peggy, 
 but you don't understand life the way Graham 
 and I do. I don't want you to have anything 
 more to do with Mazie Coffin, Peggy. She's 
 not the sort of girl for you to associate with. 
 You can ask Graham about it if you don't be- 
 lieve me." 
 
 And as Dick stalked off to bed, ill tempered 
 and aggrieved and abnormally dignified, even 
 Graham was obliged to admit that it looked 
 like a cure.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 DELIVERANCE 
 
 PRISCILLA had seen Horace only once since 
 the football game, and then for a short and un- 
 satisfactory interview. Immediately after, 
 Horace had left town for one of those trips 
 which so cleverly combined business and 
 pleasure, a combination of which Horace 
 seemed to have the secret. A long let- 
 ter which might have been an excerpt from the 
 Journal of Another Disappointed Man gave 
 her no address to which to write him, and the 
 best she could do was to promise herself to be 
 very, very kind to Horace on his return. She 
 owed him that for the wrong she had done him. 
 
 The days went by without any further word 
 from Horace, and Friday rounded out a full 
 week since she had last seen him. Priscilla and 
 Peggy walked home from class together with 
 that sense of leisure, Friday afternoon brings 
 to each student, no matter how much must be 
 
 230
 
 DELIVERANCE 231 
 
 done before Monday morning. They paused 
 at Peggy's door and Peggy urged hospitably, 
 1 'Come on in." 
 
 "I think I'd better go home and see if 
 mother's there, and if she wants anything. We 
 haven't seen our maid for three days." 
 
 ''Well, we've seen Sally, if that's any com- 
 fort," laughed Peggy. "But she's been about 
 as much good as if she 'd been at the North Pole. 
 A woman she knows was knocked down by an 
 automobile and taken to the hospital, and all 
 Sally has been good for since is to dramatize the 
 affair. First she's the automobile speeding 
 recklessly on, and then she's the poor victim. 
 You never saw anything so realistic as the way 
 she drops on the kitchen floor." 
 
 Priscilla laughed, but disapprovingly. "I 
 don't see how you folks put up with her, Peggy. 
 She'd drive me crazy." 
 
 "Well, there's no denying she's a trial at 
 times, but Sally has her good points. She's 
 devoted to us all, for one thing, and that isn't 
 very common these days. And besides, ' * added 
 Peggy simply, "if we didn't keep her I don't 
 know how the poor thing would get along."
 
 232 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 The two girls had been together all day but 
 they lingered, loath to separate. "Listen, 
 Peggy," Priscilla exclaimed. "Come home 
 with me. Like enough mother will have an 
 errand for me to do and then we can go to- 
 gether. Don't you love outdoors when it's still 
 and cold like this?" 
 
 "Yes, love it. I'll go and see if we need any- 
 thing in the way of groceries, and I'll join you 
 in about a minute." 
 
 Peggy hurried up the walk and Priscilla 
 went on her way. The evening paper lay folded 
 on the porch of her home and she picked it up 
 and tucked it under her arm before she slipped 
 her key into the latch. She found the kitchen 
 empty and ran upstairs, calling her mother. 
 But only the echoes answered, and Priscilla 
 realized that except for herself the house was 
 empty. 
 
 Priscilla seated herself to wait for Peggy, 
 picking up the paper she had thrown on the 
 library table. Her eye ran mechanically over 
 the columns. She turned the sheets, her 
 thoughts still busy with the day's happenings, 
 and with vague plans for the morrow. Then
 
 DELIVERANCE 233 
 
 unexpectedly a familiar face flashed out at her 
 from the page, set above head-lines that seemed 
 fairly to shriek their news. 
 
 YOUNG HITCHCOCK SURPRISES FRIENDS 
 SOCIETY MAN MARRIES IN NEW YORK 
 
 Priscilla, sitting motionless, read the news 
 over several times. Then her eyes began mov- 
 ing down the column. Even when she saw 
 Horace's name written out in full, her sense 
 of unreality persisted. The reporter had 
 treated the matter humorously, following the 
 precedent which makes love and marriage the 
 most popular theme for jests. That the lady in 
 question had become Mrs. Hitchcock just three 
 days after meeting her future husband fur- 
 nished a partial excuse for the levity. 
 
 "Mr. Hitchcock denies that there is anything 
 hasty in his romantic marriage," wrote the re- 
 porter. "When asked if he considered a three 
 days' acquaintance a sufficient prelude to mat- 
 rimony, he smilingly replied that he preferred 
 three thousand years. In explanation of his 
 enigmatic remark, Mr. Hitchcock gave his views
 
 234 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 on reincarnation, while in the background Mrs. 
 Hitchcock blushed assent. Both are convinced 
 that, to quote Mr. Hitchcock, 'they were soul 
 mates when the pyramids were in building, 
 lovers in Babylon ' " 
 
 Priscilla suddenly crumpled the paper in her 
 hand. The familiar phrases were like a dash 
 of cold water, rousing her from her daze. "I'm 
 free," she cried, "I'm free! I'm free!" and 
 broke into violent weeping. 
 
 Peggy rang several times without attracting 
 attention. When at length she put her finger 
 to the button and held it there, Priscilla woke 
 to the realization that there was some one at 
 the door. She crept downstairs, unconsciously 
 holding fast to the paper that had announced 
 her release, and admitted a justly incensed 
 Peggy. 
 
 "I'm afraid you need some of those artificial 
 ear-drums, Priscilla Why, what's hap- 
 pened?" Peggy's attempted irony changed to 
 affectionate concern, as she saw Priscilla with 
 her tear-streaked cheeks and eyes inflamed and 
 swollen. She threw her arms around her 
 friend, her imagination running the gamut of
 
 DELIVERANCE 235 
 
 possible calamities. "Oh, what is the matter!" 
 she pleaded. 
 
 It seemed to Priscilla that a verbal explana- 
 tion was beyond her. Dumbly she held out the 
 crumpled sheet. Pe'ggy caught sight of 
 Horace's smug smile, snatched the paper from 
 Priscilla 's hand, and read the incredible story 
 at a glance. The blood rushed to her brain, 
 dying even her ears crimson. Rage shook her. 
 For the instant, the gentle Peggy was a silent 
 fury. 
 
 Priscilla roused herself to the need of ex- 
 planation. ' * Peggy ! ' ' 
 
 Peggy whirled upon her. "My dear, it is 
 the most abominable thing I ever heard of, but 
 you couldn't have cared for him, Priscilla. Oh, 
 tell me you didn't." 
 
 "We well, we were engaged." 
 
 "Engaged," choked Peggy. She took a back- 
 ward step, looked at Priscilla 's disfigured face, 
 and dug her nails deep into her palms. "Oh, 
 I wish I were a man," she breathed in a voice 
 hardly recognizable. 
 
 Priscilla uttered a choked laugh. Combined 
 with the fact that the tears were still running
 
 236 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 down her face, this did not tend to allay Peggy 's 
 apprehensions. But as the laugh seemed to 
 unlock Priscilla's tongue, her distressed 
 friend was not long kept in suspense. 
 
 "I suppose I looked as if I were heart- 
 broken," exclaimed Priscilla, laughing and 
 crying. "Yes, we were really engaged, Peggy, 
 but you can't imagine what a nightmare it has 
 been." 
 
 "A nightmare," gasped Peggy. "Your en- 
 gagement a nightmare!" She put her hands 
 to her head as if the unexpected information 
 acquired in the last few minutes had crowded 
 it to the bursting point. 
 
 "Wait, Peggy! I've had a dreadful time, 
 but it's been my own fault. I blame myself for 
 everything that has happened. If it hadn't 
 been for my silly vanity " 
 
 "Vanity" interrupted Peggy, and sniffed 
 her scorn. 
 
 "Oh, you can sneer, Peggy Raymond, but 
 I've been a silly little fool. In the first place, I 
 made myself miserable because nobody wanted 
 me." 
 
 "Priscilla," Peggy interrupted again, "Ibe-
 
 DELIVERANCE 237 
 
 lieve you ought to go to bed. You're talking 
 as if you were delirious." 
 
 "I know perfectly well what Pm saying, 
 Peggy. You were engaged to Graham, and 
 Nelson was in love with Ruth and Bob Carey 
 was getting very attentive to Amy, and I was 
 the only one left out and I resented it." 
 
 "Do you mean," cried Peggy incredulously, 
 that you don't know that you're so handsome 
 that people are always turning to look after 
 you when you pass?" 
 
 Priscilla laughed. "I won't choke you off, 
 Peggy. After that news " she nodded sig- 
 nificantly toward the paper. "I fancy I can 
 stand a little flattery and not be injured. But 
 anyway I was sour and sore when Horace began 
 to call. I knew exactly what Horace was, 
 Peggy, but I shut my eyes to it. I wouldn't 
 criticize him even in my thoughts. I wouldn't 
 let you laugh at him ' 
 
 "Don't I know it!" Peggy drew a long 
 breath. ' ' That was one of the things that made 
 me anxious." 
 
 "Well, when he told me that he cared for 
 me, I just snatched at him, Peggy. I was per-
 
 238 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 fectly delighted that somebody thought I was 
 attractive. And I was such a silly little fool 
 that I actually gloated over being the second 
 girl out of us four to to get engaged. Peggy, 
 I'm terribly ashamed to tell you all this, but 
 now's the time to finish up the subject and be 
 done with it. ' ' 
 
 "Priscilla darling, I can understand every- 
 thing except your feeling that way about your- 
 self." 
 
 4 'Of course I wasn't happy," Priscilla went 
 on. "I don't know whether Horace was or not. 
 He always talked in a dreadfully pessimistic 
 fashion, but I rather think " 
 
 "Just a pose," interpolated Peggy wither- 
 ingly. "Even when he was a little boy, Horace 
 was always playing a part." 
 
 "Once or twice I tried to tell him I thought 
 we had made a mistake. When I thought of 
 going on and on through the years it didn't 
 seem as if I could bear it. And then he talked 
 so dreadfully, Peggy, and I was afraid he'd kill 
 himself." 
 
 "No such luck," snorted Priscilla 's audience. 
 It was hard to believe that it was really Peggy
 
 DELIVERANCE 239 
 
 making such a speech and looking so fierce and 
 angry. Priscilla interrupted her story by a 
 little hysterical laugh. 
 
 "The last time was only two weeks ago at 
 the foot-ball game. He was so disagreeable 
 that I tried again to get out of it, and then he 
 took it so to heart that I gave up all hope of 
 ever being free. "When I read that account 
 today, and it came over me all at once that 
 I needn't ever see Horace Hitchcock again, it 
 seemed as if I'd die of joy. I believe I should 
 have, too, if I hadn't begun to cry." 
 
 Peggy was still scornful. "The idea of your 
 sacrificing yourself for such a fellow as 
 Horace." 
 
 "Only because I was to blame, Peggy. As 
 long as my silly vanity had got me into such a 
 scrape, I thought nothing was too bad for me." 
 
 "Didn't it ever occur to you that two wrongs 
 didn't make a right? If you were wrong in 
 getting engaged to Horace when you didn't love 
 him, marrying him without love would be a 
 million times wickeder." 
 
 Priscilla took the reproof meekly. ' ' Perhaps 
 so. Anyway, I have learned my lesson. The
 
 240 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 wrong man is so much worse than no man at all 
 that now I'm perfectly resigned to being an 
 old maid." 
 
 Peggy sniffed derisively. "You talk about 
 your silly vanity. You certainly were silly 
 enough, but when it comes to vanity, why, Pris- 
 cilla Combs, you're the most painfully modest 
 girl I know. The timid violet is a monster of 
 arrogance compared to you. I adore Ruth and 
 Amy, as everybody knows, but when it comes 
 to looks, they 're simply not in it alongside you. 
 You're handsome, Priscilla, just as Horace's 
 dreadful old aunt said, and you're talented and 
 you're charming, and lots of men would fall in 
 love with you in a minute if they thought they 
 had the ghost of a chance." 
 
 Priscilla clapped her hands over her ears 
 and blushed till Peggy's eloquence lost itself 
 in laughter. "I'm not going to be punished by 
 having to marry Horace," she said, when at 
 length she judged it safe to lower her defenses. 
 "But I shan't get off scott-free. Just think, 
 P e ggy> now many people in this city will be 
 sorry for me, because I've been jilted by 
 Horace Hitchcock."
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 PEGGY COMES TO A DECISION 
 
 IT was mid-afternoon on a crisp February 
 day when Graham called Peggy on the phone. 
 In his preliminary "Hello" she detected an 
 unwonted note of excitement. 
 
 "Hello, Graham. Yes, it's Peggy." 
 
 "I want you to take dinner with me to-night." 
 
 "Take dinner? Why, I can't possibly, Gra- 
 ham. I've got quite a lot of cramming to do 
 for the mid-year examinations. And I haven't 
 even looked at my lessons for to-morrow." 
 
 "Hang your lessons." 
 
 Peggy pricked up her ears. "What did you 
 say ? ' ' she queried incredulously. 
 
 "I said, 'Hang your lessons,' and I'll add, 
 'Hang your examinations.' I've got to see 
 you and have a long talk." 
 
 One of the advantages of habitual faithful- 
 ness to duty is that the rare relapse into irre- 
 sponsibility comes as a delightful holiday. 
 
 241
 
 242 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 Peggy's face suddenly crinkled into a charm- 
 ing smile. It was a pity Graham could not 
 see it. 
 
 "Oh, well," she said demurely, "if it's ter- 
 ribly important " 
 
 "It is." 
 
 "Then I suppose I must let you have your 
 way. ' ' 
 
 "I'll call for you at half past six and we'll 
 dine at the McLaughlin." 
 
 "The McLaughlin! You haven't happened 
 to come into a fortune since last evening, have 
 you!" 
 
 "Not exactly. It's a celebration." 
 
 "What for?" 
 
 1 * That 's telling. See you at six- thirty, Peggy 
 darling. Good-by." And Graham rang off 
 in a hurry, as if he feared her powers of 
 persuasion, and suspected that if he gave her 
 half a chance she would have the whole story 
 out of him over the wire. 
 
 Peggy went back to her books with a smile 
 which proved her thinking of something very 
 different from history or economics. She was 
 well aware that she would go to the class next
 
 PEGGY COMES TO A DECISION 243 
 
 day without her usual careful preparation, but 
 having made up her mind to accede to Graham's 
 request, she had no intention of spoiling her 
 pleasure by thinking of slighted tasks. And 
 though she made a valiant effort at concentra- 
 tion in the short time left her for study, her 
 attempt was not particularly successful. The 
 dinner was a celebration, Graham had said. 
 She racked her brain to recall some anniversary 
 that had momentarily escaped her recollection, 
 but without results. 
 
 Peggy was dressed by six o'clock, having 
 spent an unprecedentedly long time over her 
 toilet. The McLaughlin, though not the largest 
 hotel in the city, was one of the most exclu- 
 sive, and the costumes seen in the dining-room 
 were frequently of an elegance compared with 
 which Peggy's little evening frock was almost 
 dowdy. But neither at the McLaughlin nor 
 elsewhere was one likely to see a face more 
 charming than that which looked back at Peggy 
 from her mirror, so that her haunting fear that 
 Graham might be ashamed of her was entirely 
 unfounded. 
 
 Mrs. Raymond left the dining table to see
 
 244 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 the young couple off. "Have a good time, 
 dears," she said, and was pleased but not sur- 
 prised when Graham followed Peggy's ex- 
 ample, and stooping kissed her. She stood 
 at the window looking after them as they went 
 down the street. What a dear boy Graham 
 was! In the far-off, nebulous future when 
 Peggy began to think of being married, she 
 could trust her to Graham without a fear. And 
 then they would live near, where she could see 
 Peggy every day. Mrs. Eaymond told herself 
 she would not have anything different. 
 
 "Mother," called Mr. Eaymond 's voice from 
 the dining-room, "your dinner's getting cold." 
 
 Meanwhile Peggy, tilting her head on one 
 side like an inquisitive canary, was asking 
 Graham, "What is it we are going to cele- 
 brate?" 
 
 "Washington's birthday and the Fourth of 
 July, Christmas and New Year's." 
 
 "Now, Graham, really I want to know." 
 
 "I'll tell you when the time comes. It's not 
 the sort of thing to be sprung on the street." 
 
 "Oh, how interesting!" But though Peggy 
 stopped asking questions, her curiosity grew
 
 PEGGY COMES TO A DECISION 245 
 
 prodigiously. Silent as Graham was as to the 
 occasion of this unwonted festivity, she real- 
 ized that there was about him an atmosphere of 
 suppressed excitement. Sometimes, when his 
 eyes were on her, he seemed to be looking 
 through her at something big in the distance. 
 Peggy was at the age when thrills and mys- 
 teries are always welcome. She climbed aboard 
 the street-car all a-tingle with pleasurable ex- 
 citement. 
 
 The dining-room at the McLaughlin im- 
 pressed Peggy with its grandeur. The hour was 
 still early for fashionable diners, and less than 
 half of the tables were occupied. But the rows 
 of waiters in black clothes and gleaming shirt 
 fronts, and the scrape of violins in the back- 
 ground, gave Peggy an uneasy sense of being 
 out of place. But Graham, convinced that he 
 was escorting the queen rose of the rose-bud 
 garden of girls, walked to his place as sure of 
 himself as a young prince. And what he saw 
 in Peggy's eyes was not of a sort to lessen his 
 self-confidence. 
 
 Peggy soon perceived that her customary 
 little hints regarding economy were to have
 
 246 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 no weight on this particular occasion. Graham 
 began with oysters and then appealed to Peggy 
 as to her choice in soups. And perceiving that 
 he was determined to be extravagant, for all 
 she could say or do, Peggy gave herself up to 
 enjoying the fruits of his extravagance. This 
 was clearly Graham's night. Peggy decided 
 not to ask again about his secret till he told 
 her of his own accord. 
 
 As a matter of fact, Graham seemed in no 
 hurry to take her into his confidence. The meal 
 went on through its leisurely courses, the tables 
 about them gradually filling, till the attentive 
 waiter set their dessert before them French 
 pastries with small cups of deliciously fragrant 
 coffee. Peggy tasted and sipped and smiled, 
 and looked across the table with such an air 
 of radiant happiness that if Graham had kept 
 the smallest fragment of a heart in his pos- 
 session, he would have been forced to surrender 
 it on the spot. 
 
 He laid down his fork and leaned toward her. 
 " Peggy, I've got my promotion." 
 
 " Oh, Graham!" 
 
 ''They want me to go to South America for
 
 PEGGY LOOKED AT HIM WITHOUT REPLYING
 
 PEGGY COMES TO A DECISION 247 
 
 two years," Graham continued, speaking with 
 curious breathlessness. "They're not asking 
 me to stay permanently, you understand. But 
 they want a man here who's thoroughly 
 familiar with conditions down there." 
 
 Pegggy looked at him without replying, all 
 the radiant happiness drained from her face. 
 South America! Her sensations were almost 
 the same as when he went to France, except that 
 now she had no patriotic ardor to sustain her. 
 He was to be away two years, and yet his mood 
 was exultant, and he seemed to expect her con- 
 gratulations. 
 
 Peggy rallied her courage and lifted her eyes 
 with a wan little smile. ' * When when do they 
 want you to go?" Her fork clattered against 
 her plate, and she laid it down. She conceived 
 on the instant an intense loathing for French 
 pastry. 
 
 "In July." 
 
 "Oh!" Peggy winked hard. It would be a 
 shame to spoil that beautiful dinner by crying. 
 And besides, it was a long time before Graham 
 would have to go, from February to July. 
 Then a dreadful thought wrung her heart. If
 
 248 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 six months was a long time, what of two 
 years ? 
 
 Graham's face seemed to waver as he leaned 
 toward her across the little round table. His 
 voice sounded far-off and unfamiliar. "What 
 do you say, Peggy ? Shall we go ? " 
 
 "I I what are you talking about Graham?" 
 
 "You're always saying how you'd love to 
 travel. Don't you see this is your chance." 
 
 "Do you do you mean " 
 
 "Yes, of course I do. Won't you marry me, 
 Peggy, and go along? I can't leave you for 
 two years. I can't. When I came back from 
 the other side I promised myself I'd never be 
 separated from you again by anything less than 
 a world war. If I went by myself, Peggy, it 
 would be going into exile for two years. But 
 with you along, it would be a two-years ' honey- 
 moon. Think what it would be to see those new 
 countries together. ' ' 
 
 "I suppose it would be a good thing for our 
 Spanish," said Peggy, and the inane remark 
 set them both to laughing, which undoubtedly 
 was a good thing. When the paroxysm was 
 over, Peggy wiped her eyes and struggled to be
 
 PEGGY COMES TO A DECISION 249 
 
 reasonable. "But, Graham, I don't graduate 
 till the twelfth of June." 
 
 "And I don't sail till the sixth of July. 
 Loads of time." 
 
 "But I always meant to earn my living for 
 a few years after I graduated, before " 
 
 "I wouldn't have stood for that, Peggy, not 
 if I was making enough to take care of you, 
 and I shall be." 
 
 Peggy was breathing fast. It was hard to 
 realize that she and Graham were sitting there 
 in the McLaughlin dining-room, discussing the 
 question of whether or not they should be 
 married in July. For except on one memorable 
 occasion, when Graham had been on the point 
 of going across and Peggy had been ready to 
 marry him at a moment's notice, she had felt 
 about her marriage much as her mother did, as 
 if it belonged to the misty, distant, indeterm- 
 inate future. And now the six months she had 
 assured herself was a long time had dwindled 
 down almost to nothing. July! It was in- 
 credibly, overwhelmingly near. 
 
 "We'll have to see what father and mother 
 think. ' ' She tried to make her voice matter-of -
 
 250 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 fact, but it had an unnatural tension. Graham 
 on the other side of the little table, nodded 
 agreement. 
 
 "Of course we'll see what they think. But 
 we know they can say only one thing. It's 
 such a reasonable solution that only one opinion 
 is possible. Don't you like your dessert, 
 Peggy? Won't you have some ice-cream?" 
 
 Peggy protested she liked her desert, and 
 finished it without tasting a morsel. Then they 
 went home and proceeded to bomb the peaceful 
 Raymond household with Graham's astound- 
 ing proposition. And while Mrs. Raymond 
 began by pronouncing it out of the question, be- 
 fore the evening ended she was driven to admit 
 the reasonableness of Graham's plan. It was 
 true that Peggy's marriage would follow rather 
 closely on the heels of her graduation, but 
 thanks to common-sense hours of sleep, and an 
 abundance of outdoor exercise, she had come 
 through her four years^ college course in 
 radiant health. A separation of two years just 
 now would be hard for both, and especially for 
 Graham. Indeed Graham frankly declared 
 that he would not go without Peggy, and yet
 
 PEGGY COMES TO A DECISION 251 
 
 to refuse such a chance was to prejudice his 
 future success. 
 
 When Peggy went to bed that night she knew 
 the whole thing was settled. To be sure, both 
 her father and mother had warned her against 
 a hasty decision, insisting that she take plenty 
 of time to think the matter over. But Peggy 
 knew what the final verdict would be, and she 
 was sure Graham also knew it, by the triumph 
 in his eyes as he kissed her good night. 
 
 Changes ! She lay in her little white bed and 
 thought of the new life opening before her, 
 strange countries, unfamiliar tongues, alien 
 customs, even the dear, friendly constellations 
 replaced by unknown stars. And the queerest 
 part of all was that she herself would no longer 
 be Peggy Raymond, but a strange young woman, 
 Margaret Wylie by name. Peggy gave a little 
 incredulous laugh. It was astonishing how the 
 world had turned upside down since morning.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 A PARTIAL ECLIPSE 
 
 THE wedding day was set for the second of 
 July, and after that decision had been reached, 
 Peggy professed a complete loss of interest in 
 the subject. When Graham consulted her on 
 details more or less important, she gave him a 
 reluctant attention. 
 
 "I tell you, Graham, I don't want to think 
 about it. I never did enjoy mixed flavors. I 
 shall have years and years of being Mrs. 
 Graham Wylie, fifty or sixty probably, and 
 there's only a few months left of my college 
 life." 
 
 "If you feel so keenly on the subject," teased 
 Graham, "we'd better postpone our wedding, 
 and let you take a post-graduate course of ten 
 years or so." 
 
 "That won't be necessary. I know I shall 
 love my wedding clothes, and my wedding day, 
 and being married to you, and everything. But 
 
 252
 
 A PARTIAL ECLIPSE 253 
 
 if I let myself think of that, I'll spoil this, don't 
 you see? It would be like eating ice-cream 
 with soup." 
 
 "I suppose I shall be allowed to call oc- 
 casionally. ' ' 
 
 "Don't be silly! Of course I should be 
 wretched if I didn't see you every day. But 
 unless you have to settle something very im- 
 portant about South America, don't ask my 
 opinion. Up to the twelfth of June, I'm a 
 college senior, first, last and all the time." 
 
 Peggy was as. good as her word. As far as 
 her conversation revealed, she never looked 
 beyond Commencement Day. And if it was in- 
 evitable that her thoughts should be more un- 
 ruly than her tongue, her mental excursions 
 into the future were surprisingly few. Peggy 
 had never been a girl to discount to-day in 
 favor of to-morrow, and this life-long habit 
 aided her in her determination to extract the 
 full flavor from the present. 
 
 While Peggy had thoroughly enjoyed her 
 college life, college associations had naturally 
 never meant to her what they mean to a girl 
 who leaves home to complete her education.
 
 254 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 Although she was popular in her class, her 
 closest friends were the girls who had been her 
 intimates long before her high-school days, 
 even, and she enjoyed her home so thoroughly 
 that it never occurred to her to regret having 
 missed the associations of dormitory life. But 
 now she gave herself so unreservedly to her 
 college interests that no on-looker would have 
 dreamed tha,t any event of special importance 
 had been scheduled for early July. 
 
 As a matter of fact, Peggy could hardly have 
 done justice to her varied duties in connection 
 with Commencement, had she brought to them a 
 divided attention. Her knack at rhyming had 
 resulted in her election as class poet, and the 
 same gift, doubtless, had caused her to be 
 chosen one of the editorial staff of the Annual, 
 gotten out each spring by the senior class. 
 Moreover she had a part, though a small one, in 
 the class play that was to be given out-of-doors 
 and promised to be one of the most interesting 
 features of commencement week. Since even 
 for seniors there were lessons to be learned, 
 and examinations to be passed, it is no wonder 
 that Peggy found herself quite occupied with-
 
 A PARTIAL ECLIPSE 255 
 
 out giving thought to the great changes on 
 ahead. 
 
 While she struggled with her poem, which she 
 was determined as all class laureates, to make 
 a masterpiece, and scribbled off jokes for the 
 Annual and practised for the play, and studied 
 in her odd minutes, the days had a most dis- 
 concerting fashion of shooting by without re- 
 gard to speed regulations. Every Saturday 
 night awoke in Peggy's mind the same in- 
 credulity. Another week was gone only it 
 couldn't be, for it was no time at all since last 
 Sunday morning. She had an unreasonable 
 impulse to clutch at the flying hours and hold 
 them fast. 
 
 But the last spring of her college life was 
 not to be altogether a season of flowers. One 
 afternoon at the close of recitations, Peggy 
 hunted up Ruth who had agreed to go with her 
 for a call on Mary Donaldson. 
 
 "Ruth, I'm sorry, but Priscilla and I are 
 going to be busy until after dinner time, 
 probably. It's the Annual again." 
 
 "That old Annual takes so much time," 
 scolded Ruth, objecting on principle to any-
 
 256 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 thing that separated her from Peggy for these 
 few precious weeks. Poor Euth was trying to 
 imitate Peggy's example and not look ahead, 
 but there were times when the coming desola- 
 tion settled over her spirits like a chilling fog. 
 With Peggy and Graham in South America, 
 and Nelson in Oklahoma, Euth felt that exist- 
 ence would be flat and flavorless. 
 
 1 'Yes, I know it takes time." Peggy reso- 
 lutely ignored the undertone of tragedy in 
 Euth's voice. "But somebody has to do it, and 
 anyway, it's fun." 
 
 It was due to her lingering to cheer the des- 
 pondent Euth that Peggy was the last of the 
 Annual staff to reach the class room, which for 
 that particular evening had been promoted to 
 the dignity of an editorial sanctum. Peggy 
 made her entry on a somewhat hilarious scene. 
 Everybody was laughing, or so Peggy thought. 
 Had she been more observant she would have 
 noticed that Priscilla's face wore no smile, but 
 a look of anxiety, bordering on distress. 
 
 "What's the joke?" inquired Peggy, as she 
 took her seat. Though the gathering was made 
 up of college seniors and was therefore a digni-
 
 A PARTIAL ECLIPSE 257 
 
 fied, deliberative assembly, its proceedings were 
 sometimes as informal as if they had been 
 merely a group of high-school girls. 
 
 By way of answer, a sheet of card-board that 
 evidently had made the rounds was put in her 
 hand. Peggy looked at it curiously. At the 
 top, under the heading, "The Misfit," was a 
 clever caricature representing a small man at- 
 tired in garments much too large for him. His 
 broad-brimmed hat came down over his ears, 
 his overcoat trailed on the ground, while the 
 umbrella he carried was more than double his 
 height. But the artist had avoided giving the 
 impression that he was a masquerading child by 
 bringing into prominence a somewhat scraggly 
 mustache. 
 
 Peggy smiled appreciatively at the undoubted 
 humor of the drawing and gave her attention 
 to the verses below. But though they showed 
 quite as much ability as the illustration, the 
 effect of reading them was to erase the smile 
 from her lips, leaving her gravely attentive. 
 The laughter had quieted. She was aware that 
 the girls were all watching her, and though she 
 did not raise her eyes, she knew instinctively
 
 258 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 that Priscilla's face wore a look of apprehen- 
 sion. 
 
 The previous spring, one of the most popular 
 men in the English department had resigned to 
 devote himself to literary work, and his place 
 had been nominally filled by a young man with 
 good credentials but no experience. He had 
 proved a great disappointment, for whatever 
 his attainments, he lacked the ability to impart ; 
 while in contrast to the enthusiasm which 
 Professor Baer's lectures had aroused, his 
 classes seemed veritable refrigerating plants. 
 Peggy knew that the seniors who had taken his 
 courses were complaining bitterly that they 
 had been " stung, " and had congratulated her- 
 self that her own work in English had been con- 
 tinued with another member of the faculty. 
 
 In the verses before her, all the resentment 
 of the students toward an incompetent teacher, 
 following an able and popular one, was ex- 
 pressed with diabolical cleverness. The fact 
 that the present incumbent was named Fox, 
 and that he followed Professor Baer, had 
 already been the theme of innumerable jokes, 
 and the author of the verses had used it as the
 
 A PARTIAL ECLIPSE 259 
 
 motive of her lines, so that there was no chance 
 that even the outsider would remain ignorant 
 of the instructor satirized. 
 
 Peggy read the verses over more than once 
 in order to gain time. She was sorely tempted 
 to say nothing. Peggy was under no illusions 
 regarding the path of the reformer. It was 
 vastly easier, vastly pleasanter, to let things 
 go. It was not that she had any cowardly 
 shrinking from hard knocks, but now, almost at 
 the close of her college life, she was not in the 
 mood to antagonize any one. She loved every- 
 thing about the college, its gray stone buildings 
 draped in ivy, its campus dotted with stately 
 trees, the class-rooms and the laboratories, the 
 dignified president, the professors and the girls 
 oh, most of all, the girls. She loved to be- 
 lieve in their affection, their admiration. 
 Never in her life had popularity meant as much 
 to her as now. And yet in spite of her distaste, 
 she knew she had no choice. She must dis- 
 agree, antagonize, anger. 
 
 When she lifted her eyes, the room was very 
 quiet, almost as if every one knew what she 
 was going to say. "Awfully clever, aren't
 
 260 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 they ? ' ' Peggy spoke very deliberately. ' * What 
 are they for?" 
 
 A dark-eyed girl across the room took it on 
 herself to answer, and as soon as her lips 
 parted, Peggy knew her for the author. 
 
 "I'd intended it for the Atlantic Monthly/' 
 she smiled with frank sarcasm. "But I think 
 perhaps it 's better suited to the Annual. What 
 do you say ? ' ' 
 
 "I'm afraid I don't think it's at all suited to 
 the Annual." 
 
 There was a little chorus of protests. "You 
 never were in his classes, Peggy," cried some 
 one from the rear seat. "If you'd endured 
 what we have at the hands of that man, you'd 
 love every line." 
 
 A burst of approving laughter showed how 
 completely the sympathies of this group of girls 
 were with the speaker. Half-whispered com- 
 ments were being exchanged. "The stupidest 
 lectures!" "The greatest waste of time!" 
 Peggy was perfectly able to understand this 
 point of view. She struggled to make the girls 
 see hers. 
 
 "Of course that's not right. If I had been
 
 A PARTIAL ECLIPSE 261 
 
 in his class I'd have been perfectly ready to go 
 to President Eaton, and tell him how unsatis- 
 factory everything was. But to take this way 
 of doing it " she looked down at the mocking 
 lines and said with a visible effort, " Don't you 
 think it seems a little bit cowardly and cruel, 
 too?" 
 
 Priscilla came to her friend 's assistance. ' * If 
 the faculty knew about those verses, I'm sure 
 we'd never be allowed to put them in the 
 Annual. ' ' 
 
 * ' How 's the faculty to know ? ' ' demanded the 
 criticized author, Ida Craig, with much asperity. 
 
 " Don't you think," suggested Peggy with all 
 the diplomacy she could muster, "that since 
 they leave it all to us, we're put on our honor 
 to see that nothing gets in that they could 
 object to?" 
 
 Ida smiled disagreeably. "After all," she 
 said, "you're not the editor-in-chief, you know." 
 
 The rudness gave Peggy the courage that she 
 needed. "No, of course. I haven't any more 
 voice than any of the rest of you. But if the 
 poem goes in, I shall ask you to accept my 
 resignation. ' '
 
 262 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 "In other words," exclaimed Ida, "If you 
 can't have your own way, you'll take your dolls 
 and go home. ' ' 
 
 "No indeed," Peggy was trying to speak 
 calmly, but her voice shook, "But if my name 
 appears among the editors of the Annual, it'll 
 be taken for granted that I approve of all that 
 is in it. I 'm not willing to stand for anything 
 like this." 
 
 "Nor I," said Priscilla. "I agree with 
 Peggy." 
 
 Ida Craig leaned toward the girl nearest her. 
 "Miss Combs is nothing if not original," she 
 said in an echoing stage-whisper audible to 
 every one in the room. But the editor-in-chief, 
 dismayed at the prospect of losing two af her 
 most reliable aides, hastily interposed. 
 
 "Now we mustn't get personal, girls," she 
 said. "You know how the newspapers are 
 always trying to make out that the members of 
 women's organizations do nothing but quarrel. 
 I think college graduates ought to disprove that 
 sort of thing." She looked at Peggy rather 
 appealingly. "I suppose you're willing to 
 abide by the will of the majority," she said.
 
 A PARTIAL ECLIPSE 263 
 
 "If the majority vote to include 'The Mis- 
 fit,' " returned Peggy, "Of course that settles 
 it." And then as the face of the editor-in- 
 chief brightened, she added, "But I shall have 
 to resign, because the vote of the majority 
 can't decide a question of right and wrong for 
 me." 
 
 "Oh," said the editor-in-chief rather blankly, 
 and then she quickly rallied. "We'll decide 
 that question when we come to it," she said. 
 "Will the meeting please come to order." 
 
 The mooted question was not put to vote till 
 the end of the hour. "All in favor of includ- 
 ing 'The Misfit' in the Annual," said the edi- 
 tor-in-chief, after the motion had been duly 
 made, "please signify it by saying 'aye.' 
 
 "Aye," chimecj. two defiant voices, that of 
 the author and her dearest friend in the class. 
 
 "Those opposed, 'No.' " 
 
 There was a murmur of 'noes,' indicating 
 that Peggy had won her fight, but she had none 
 of the elation of the victor. She realized that 
 several had not voted, and that those who had 
 espoused her side had acted from motives of 
 policy rather than conviction. Ida Craig was
 
 264 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 plainly offended, and as for the rest, Peggy 
 suspected that they failed to make the fine 
 distinction between standing up for one's 
 principles and being determined to have one's 
 way. 
 
 Those closing weeks of college life were not 
 all she had hoped. Peggy fancied a reserve in 
 the friendliness of her friends. She became 
 unnaturally sensitive, imagining slights where 
 none existed. She was troubled by the thought 
 that Priscilla shared in her partial eclipse of 
 popularity, and inclined to regard her uncom- 
 promising conscience as a decided inconven- 
 ience, if nothing worse. 
 
 But Peggy's stand was to have a tragic 
 justification. Three weeks before Commence- 
 ment the Annual came from the binders, look- 
 ing very attractive in its cover of blue and 
 white, the college colors. The editorial force 
 had been called together to make the necessary 
 arrangements for placing it on sale. Peggy 
 and Priscilla had an early class Wednesday 
 morning, and as they entered the hall on their 
 way to the cloak-room, they encountered 
 Phyllis Eiordan, the Annual's editor-in-chief.
 
 A PARTIAL ECLIPSE 265 
 
 Phyllis' greeting was more than cordial, but 
 Peggy hardly noticed that, in her concern for 
 the girl herself. 
 
 "Why, Phyllis, " she cried. "What's the 
 matter? You're as white as a sheet." 
 
 Phyllis looked from one to the other. "You 
 haven't heard about Mrs. Fox?" 
 
 "What about her?" The question came 
 simultaneously from two pairs of lips. 
 
 "She died last night." 
 
 Peggy and Priscilla uttered a shocked ex- 
 clamation. They were both but slightly ac- 
 quainted with the girlish wife of the unpopu- 
 lar professor of English, but intimacy was not 
 needed to point the tragedy of the news. Her 
 voice curiously tense, Phyllis continued. 
 
 "It seemed she had serious heart trouble, 
 and the doctor thought she ought to live in 
 a milder climate. Professor Fox has resigned, 
 and they were to locate in southern California. 
 And Oh, Peggy Raymond 
 
 She turned suddenly toward Peggy, and 
 caught both of her hands. ' ' Since I heard the 
 news last evening, I haven't been able to think 
 of anything else. Peggy, do you realize
 
 266 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 what it would have meant if we had let that 
 poem of Ida's go in? We'd have had to de- 
 stroy the whole edition of the Annual. We 
 couldn't have done anything else." 
 
 Peggy changed color slightly, but did not 
 speak. 
 
 "You've saved our lives," declared Phyllis, 
 her eyes bright with tears. "If it hadn't been 
 for you, we'd have been in the worst box of 
 any class since the college was founded. And 
 when I think how brave you were, standing out 
 against us all " 
 
 "Why, Phyllis," Peggy interposed, "I 
 wasn't brave at all. This this dreadful thing 
 that has happened doesn't make me a bit more 
 right than I was in the beginning. And I 
 knew it, too, and yet I wasn't satisfied. I've 
 been ready to wish I hadn't done it a hundred 
 times. And when you call me brave, you make 
 me desperately ashamed, for nobody knows as 
 well as I do what a coward I 've been. ' ' 
 
 "If you're cowardly, Peggy," cried Priscilla, 
 up in arms at once, "I'm sorry for the rest of 
 us." 
 
 "Heavens, I should say so," agreed Phyl-
 
 A PARTIAL ECLIPSE 267 
 
 lis. And then as the signal bell sounded, the 
 girls rushed for the cloak room. Blended 
 with Peggy's sorrow and her sense of humil- 
 ity, was a gratifying certainty that the last 
 three weeks of her college life would be all she 
 had dreamed.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE END OF SCHOOL LIFE 
 
 THE senior banquet was the most intimate 
 and, in the opinion of many, the most delightful 
 festivity of Commencement. No guests were 
 invited. The only member of the faculty 
 present was the honorary member of the class, 
 a charming woman, who taught Greek and 
 talked slang as an antidote, she was wont to 
 say. And because it was so strictly a class 
 affair, a great deal of fun was in order which 
 would have been impossible before ever so 
 limited an audience. 
 
 4 'What I like about it is that it's frankly 
 selfish," Peggy told Priscilla. And then no- 
 ticing Priscilla's expression of incredulity, "I 
 don't mean selfish in the mean sense, just the 
 nice, comfortable, homey sort. All the rest 
 of Commencement we're thinking about other 
 people, the Board of Trustees, and the fathers 
 and mothers, and the audience and the public. 
 
 268
 
 THE END OF SCHOOL LIFE 269 
 
 It's a comfort that there's one thing where we 
 don't have to think of any one but ourselves, 
 and we can be as silly as we please." 
 
 The first class to graduate had established a 
 precedent which every succeeding class had 
 strictly followed, that all engagements were to 
 be announced at the class banquet, Commence- 
 ment week. If for any reason it was preferred 
 that such announcements should be regarded 
 as confidential, it was understood that the 
 members of the class would be put to torture 
 rather than reveal a word. So strictly had a 
 few such items of news been guarded in some 
 instances for several years that the ability of 
 a woman to keep a secret had apparently been 
 satisfactorily demonstrated by the graduates 
 of Peggy's alma mater. As a rule, however, 
 the graduate who announced her engagement 
 at the class banquet was willing that all the 
 world should know the joyful news. 
 
 The banquet was held in the college 
 gymnasium, the long tables being arranged in 
 a hollow square. After the feasting was over, 
 the waiters were dismissed and the doors 
 closed to ensure perfect secrecy, after which
 
 270 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 every girl engaged in the class was expected to 
 take her stand in the central enclosure, carrying 
 with her a photograph of her fiance, the back of 
 the said photograph being duly inscribed with 
 her name and his. And as if this were not 
 enough, each was required to state in a few well- 
 chosen words the qualities which differentiated 
 her particular young man from all the rest of 
 mankind. At the conclusion of this unique 
 ceremony, the photographs were passed about 
 and duly inspected, and then a vote was taken to 
 determine the handsomest. The gentleman so 
 honored was presented with a stick-pin, which 
 his betrothed took charge of until such time as 
 she chose to deliver it. 
 
 As the girls dispatched their deviled crabs 
 and chicken salad and ice cream, and other in- 
 congruous and indigestible dainties, the 
 thoughts of many turned expectantly toward 
 the ceremony immediately following the ban- 
 quet. It was true that some of the engage- 
 ments were no secret. Graham Wylie, for in- 
 stance, had been Peggy Raymond's devoted 
 cavalier ever since she graduated from high 
 school. And there were girls in the dormi-
 
 THE END OF SCHOOL LIFE 271 
 
 tories who heard so frequently and at such 
 length from certain men friends that they were 
 assumed to be engaged whether they admitted 
 it or not. But on the other hand there were 
 always surprises enough to render the occasion 
 exciting. 
 
 The ice cream was dispatched at last, along 
 with the cakes and candies. The little coffee 
 cups were emptied. The waiters cleared the 
 tables and withdrew, closing the door accord- 
 ing to instructions. And then from here and 
 there in the long rows of diners, one laughing 
 girl after another rose, and made her way into 
 the vacant spare enclosed by the tables. 
 
 Priscilla's eye followed Peggy on her way, 
 blushing, laughing, and looking to Priscilla's 
 fond eyes the embodiment of girlish loveliness. 
 And then some one called her name. "Why, 
 Priscilla Combs!" 
 
 Priscilla turned. A classmate that she knew 
 only slightly was leaning across the table. 
 "Why aren't you going with the others?" she 
 cried. 
 
 < <I?" Priscilla colored to the roots of her 
 hair. "I'm not eligible."
 
 272 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 "Oh, come!" retorted the other archly. 
 "This isn't any time for prevarication, you 
 know. You're expected to tell the truth." 
 
 Some one caught the speaker by the arm, and 
 as she turned, hissed a terse statement in her 
 ear. Only too well did Priscilla know the im- 
 port of that whisper. Inaudible as it was, its 
 news might as well have been shouted. The 
 girl who had innocently assumed Priscilla 's 
 engagement was now hearing that Horace 
 Hitchcock, after paying Priscilla every atten- 
 ion, had met some one he liked better in New 
 York, and had married her after three days' 
 acquaintance. 
 
 Priscilla held her head high. She saw her 
 vis-a-vis change color and lift startled eyes, 
 When she found Priscilla regarding her, the 
 girl lost her head. "Oh, excuse me," she 
 gasped. 
 
 "Why certainly," laughed Priscilla. "I'm 
 like the man who was asked to change a 
 twenty-dollar bill. I appreciate the compli- 
 ment." But for all her cheerful air, the thing 
 rankled. Would they never be done pitying 
 her because she had been jilted by Horace
 
 THE END OF SCHOOL LIFE 273 
 
 Hitchcock. It was impossible to explain, but 
 it really seemed to Priscilla that some of them 
 might suspect what a relief the termination of 
 that unacknowledged engagement had been. 
 
 There were now a dozen girls in the 
 enclosure. The appearance of some was 
 greeted with loud cries, intended to convey re- 
 proach, or incredulity. Excited comments ran 
 around the tables. "Look, there's Cynthia, 
 after insisting that there wasn't a thing 
 between them. " " Why, there 's Anne Gordon. ' ' 
 "Now who in the world " And while the 
 eager inspection went on, the twelve girls in 
 the middle stood rather close together as if 
 each found it a help in that trying moment to 
 feel she was not alone. 
 
 The talk and laughter quieted when the presi- 
 dent rapped for order. Eloise Hayden was 
 the first to be called on to introduce her fiance 
 to her attentive classmates. Eloise was one of 
 the girls who affect the modern pose of matter- 
 of-factness. She was so afraid of undue senti- 
 mentality that she went too far in the other 
 direction, like one who is so determined to be 
 straight as to bend backward. As Eloise 's
 
 274 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 name was spoken, she stepped out from the 
 group, and held up to view the photograph she 
 carried. 
 
 11 Friends and classmates, I am introducing 
 John Mackenzie Eowe. As you see, he is no 
 beauty, and he'll never wear the stick pin un- 
 less it's given for a consolation prize. But on 
 the other hand, he isn't bad looking enough so 
 he needs to wear a mask when he goes on the 
 street. ' ' 
 
 The momentary silence as Eloise stopped for 
 breath was filled by a chorus of groans, Eloise 's 
 classmates disapproving her extreme lack of 
 sentiment. Quite unabashed by this demon- 
 stration, Eloise continued. 
 
 "John and I live in the country, as some of 
 you know. The only thing between his father 's 
 place and my father's place is a privet 
 hedge, not high enough to be a barrier. 
 We've lived on the two sides of that 
 hedge since he was thirteen and I eleven. I 
 suppose if any other boy had lived there, I 
 should now be engaged to him. And if any 
 other girl had lived where I do, he would have 
 been engaged to her."
 
 THE END OF SCHOOL LIFE 275 
 
 The signs of displeasure redoubled. Min- 
 gled with the groans were hisses, and Eloise, 
 who liked nothing better than to stir her friends 
 to protest against her nonchalant attitude, con- 
 tinued blithely : 
 
 "Our engagement is in every way a sensi- 
 ble one. Neither of us thinks the other per- 
 fect, so we won't have the usual disillusion- 
 ment and disappointment after we are married. 
 I'm sorry I shan't be able to introduce John to 
 you to-morrow, but he wrote me that if he came 
 he would have to put off a business trip, and I 
 wrote him, 'Business first.' 
 
 The demonstrations of disapproval were 
 now so marked that Eloise considered this a 
 good place to stop. She laid down the photo- 
 graph for the girls' inspection and stepped 
 back, seemingly very well satisfied with her 
 performance. 
 
 Judith West, a plump pink and white girl, 
 looking, thanks to her bobbed hair and round 
 face, not a day over fifteen, was next to be 
 called on. Judith blushed rosily as she held 
 up the photograph of a handsome young man 
 in a lieutenant's uniform.
 
 276 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 "This is Philip Carpenter," she announced 
 in a faint, frightened voice. "And all I can 
 say is that he's as good as he looks." 
 
 "He looks good enough to eat," encouraged 
 an admiring voice from a side-table. 
 
 "He is," declared Judith. "At least well, 
 you know what I mean. He's just as nice as 
 he can be, and after I'd seen him once, nobody 
 else in the world had the least chance." 
 
 As this impressed the class as the proper 
 attitude for an engaged girl, the applause was 
 hearty, and the blushing Judith interpreted it 
 as a finish to her remarks, and retreated 
 in charming confusion. But the applause 
 dropped into instantaneous silence as Anne 
 Gordon arose. Anne's appearance in the 
 enclosure had surprised every one. 
 
 "I haven't much of a photograph to show 
 you," said Anne holding up a kodak picture in 
 which three diminutive figures appeared seated 
 under an apple tree. "The one in the middle 
 is Elmer Wharton. He looks very tiny, but 
 believe me, he's longer than our engagement." 
 
 Anne stopped to laugh, and the class laughed 
 with her.
 
 THE END OF SCHOOL LIFE 277 
 
 "I had a letter from Elmer yesterday," 
 Anne continued, "a very particular letter. I 
 can't say it was a great surprise to me, though 
 you all seem so astonished. And in this letter 
 Elmer told me a number of things he meant to 
 say to me as soon as I got home. But I 
 thought of to-night, and I couldn't see why I 
 shouldn't be engaged the day before Com- 
 mencement as well as the day after. So I 
 telegraphed him, yes." 
 
 Amid the shrieks of laughter due to this 
 frank acknowledgment, Peggy was called, and 
 she held up her photograph with an engaging 
 pride. 
 
 "I fancy there aren't many of you who need 
 to be introduced to Graham Wylie, for he's 
 been very much in evidence ever since I 
 entered college. I don't know any way of 
 doing justice to the subject, but when I feel 
 strongly about anything, I'm very likely to 
 drop into poetry, like Mr. Wegg." 
 
 Peggy, who had been brought up on Dickens 
 as if she had been a girl of the fifties, had 
 forgotten how few of her contemporaries had 
 ever heard of Mr. Wegg. Warned of her slip
 
 278 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 by the blank faces that looked back at her, she 
 began to recite the lines she had written in sheer 
 desperation the previous evening, after she 
 was supposed to be in bed. 
 
 "It isn't because he's six feet two 
 With shoulders to match his height, 
 
 That I 'm happy and proud to be facing you 
 On this very eventful night. 
 
 "It isn't because his face is fine, 
 
 Clear-cut, like a cameo, 
 That I value the right to call him mine 
 
 More than any one here can know. 
 
 "It isn't because he's so very wise; 
 
 "We both could improve right there. 
 His faults are plain to the kindest eyes, 
 
 And I know that I have my share. 
 
 "He's not perfection to hint at this 
 Would waken his scornful mirth. 
 
 And yet he has made me just as he is 
 The happiest girl on earth. 
 
 "I know he is built of the sterling stuff 
 Of which manly men are made.
 
 THE END OF SCHOOL LIFE 279 
 
 And that glad certainty is enough 
 To render me unafraid. 
 
 "As we scatter to go our devious ways 
 Like sparks from the anvil hurled, 
 
 I want you to think of me all your days, 
 As the proudest girl in the world." 
 
 The applause that greeted Peggy's effort 
 was not due chiefly to the quality of her verses, 
 nor even to the charm of her undisguised hap- 
 piness. The Editorial Staff of the Annual 
 had leaked out. It had been whispered about 
 that if it had not been for Peggy's pro- 
 tests, the Annual would have contained a satir- 
 ical attack on a stricken man, which would 
 have rendered its circulation impossible. The 
 clapping died down, and then broke out again, 
 as if to emphazie the fact that it was a per- 
 sonal tribute. 
 
 And so one after another, the girls in the 
 enclosure introduced the possessors of the 
 names they themselves would some day bear, 
 and having finished, went laughing back to 
 their seats. The photographs were passed 
 about for examination and the ballots distri-
 
 280 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 buted. The voting was a somewhat protracted 
 process due, doubtless, to the fact that so much 
 was at stake. But in course of time the ballots 
 were collected and the judges retired to count 
 them, the girls filling in the interval with 
 college songs. 
 
 The announcement of the result of the 
 balloting came as a great surprise to Peggy. 
 For the recipient of the stick pin was not 
 Graham but Philip Carpenter. Judith, blush- 
 ing very prettily, made the speech of ac- 
 ceptance in behalf of her fiance, and took the 
 pin. 
 
 "I wish to say to you all," said the class 
 president, "that twenty-five dollars is deposited 
 with the treasurer for the purchase of a 
 wedding-present for the first of our number to 
 marry. I can only say it can't be spent too 
 soon to suit me. It's time," she added 
 severely, "that somebody was disproving the 
 slander that college women care only for civic 
 reform and settlement work and teaching 
 school, and that home and husbands don't 
 matter to them at all." 
 
 Priscilla glanced discreetly in Peggy's
 
 THE END OF SCHOOL LIFE 281 
 
 direction, but Peggy was looking at the table. 
 Indeed her expression remained thoughtful till 
 the first toast was given, and she stood with 
 the others to drink to her alma mater in a 
 draught of fruit punch. 
 
 It was not till they were on their way home 
 that Priscilla discovered the reason for Peggy's 
 temporary abstraction. For while they were 
 talking of something entirely different, Peggy 
 suddenly exclaimed, "Do you suppose it was 
 the uniform that dazzled them?" 
 
 "I don't quite understand you, Peggy." 
 
 "Why, that vote, you know. Of course 
 Judith's lieutenant is a very good looking 
 fellow, but the idea of comparing him to 
 Graham. ' ' 
 
 Priscilla looked at her friend askance and 
 said nothing. 
 
 "I have a photograph of Graham in uni- 
 form," Peggy continued, "and now I wish 
 I'd brought that. But I hadn't any idea it 
 would count so much. ' ' 
 
 ' Peggy, ' ' began Priscilla faintly. * ' Will you 
 promise not to be angry if I tell you some- 
 thing?"
 
 282 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 "Of course. Why should I be angry?" 
 
 "Well, then, I voted for Philip Carpenter." 
 
 Peggy looked at her in seemingly speechless 
 amazement. "But why?" she asked at last. 
 
 "Because well, there could be only one 
 reason for that, Peggy, because I thought him 
 the handsomest man in the collection. His 
 nose is wonderful. ' ' 
 
 "And so is Graham's. I never saw a more 
 perfect nose." 
 
 "Philip's eyes are so big and beautiful." 
 
 "A little too big, it seems to me. It gives 
 him a rather girly look. Now Graham's eyes 
 are just large enough." 
 
 Priscilla burst into an irrepressible shriek of 
 laughter. ' * I wonder if it ever occurred to you, 
 Peggy, that you might be a little bit preju- 
 diced." 
 
 It was plain that such an ide,a had never oc- 
 curred to Peggy. She looked blank for a 
 moment and then joined in Priscilla 's helpless 
 laughter. "I suppose," she owned when again 
 she could find her voice, "that it's just as well 
 that tastes differ." 
 
 They parted at Priscilla 's door, kissing each
 
 THE END OF SCHOOL LIFE 283 
 
 other good-night, a somewhat unusual cere- 
 mony, far they were not girls who made a 
 parade of affection. Peggy, who had started 
 toward her own home, suddenly turned back as 
 if she had forgotten something. Priscilla 
 hurried down the steps to meet her. 
 
 "Priscilla, do you realize that to-morrow is 
 Commencement Day? What a little time it 
 seems since we entered as Freshman. Don't 
 you remember how scared we were, and how in 
 awe of the Seniors? And now, Priscilla our 
 school life is over." 
 
 And much to Priscilla 's astonishment, and 
 even more to her own, Peggy burst into tears.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 A SURPRISE 
 
 BATHER to the surprise of those who knew 
 her best, Peggy had decided on a church 
 wedding. But when she came to give her 
 reasons, the decision seemed characteristic, 
 after all. 
 
 ' l l think this is the dearest house in the 
 world. When Graham and I come back from 
 South America, I hope we can find one just like 
 it and on Friendly Terrace, too. But it's 
 not what you'd call spacious. A dozen extra 
 people crowd it, and it makes you uncomfort- 
 able to have a wedding and leave out so many. ' ' 
 
 "Our wedding seems likely to be a unique 
 affair," grinned Graham. "From the looks of 
 Peggy's list, the guests will make up in variety 
 what they lack in exclusiveness. What do you 
 think of her asking the Bonds?" 
 
 "Now, Graham, that's not fair. I haven't 
 
 284
 
 A SURPRISE 285 
 
 any idea of asking the Bond family. I only 
 said that Elvira had improved so much that I 
 felt like encouraging her by sending her an 
 invitation. ' ' 
 
 ''And the Dunns. She's got them down." 
 For all matrimonial responsibilities loomed so 
 close, Graham's boyish fondness for teasing 
 remained one of his most prominent char- 
 acteristics. 
 
 ''Why, Graham Wylie! Not the Dunns at 
 all. Just Jimmy ! And he 's doing so well and 
 looks as nice as any boy." 
 
 "And she says she's going to have her 
 Sunday school class, one and all." 
 
 "Well, I should think so. I've taught those 
 girls ever since they came out of the infant 
 room, and they're darlings. And it would 
 break their hearts if I were married and they 
 weren't there to see." 
 
 Now that her college life was over, Peggy 
 had thrown herself joyously into her planning 
 for the next thing. Ruth, as Graham's sister, 
 was to be the maid of honor, Priscilla and Amy 
 bridesmaids. They decided on their gowns 
 after hours and hours of delicious deliberation.
 
 286 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 For a July wedding, organdie was the thing 
 the sheerest pale pink organdie, with pink roses 
 to match on their wide hats. "You'll be 
 dreams, ' ' Peggy declared ecstatically. * * Every- 
 body '11 say so." 
 
 "Nonsense!" scoffed Amy, "As if people at 
 a wedding ever looked at anybody but the 
 bride!" 
 
 "I had a letter from Alice, yesterday," ex- 
 claimed Peggy, changing the subject. "She 
 thinks little Irma had better be the flower-girl 
 instead of Dorothy. She says Dorothy has 
 been shooting up so fast lately, that now she 's 
 lanky and self-conscious, and that Irma is 
 plump and adorable. I only hope dear little 
 Dorothy won't feel left out. That would spoil 
 everything. ' ' 
 
 Robert Carey was to be Graham's best man, 
 a decision which pleased Peggy immensely. 
 Most of the ushers were young men the girls 
 knew more or less, though Graham had included 
 in the number a comparative new-comer at the 
 office, Kennedy by name, with whom he was on 
 especially friendly terms. "You ought to 
 bring him out some evening," suggested
 
 A SURPRISE 287 
 
 Peggy," and not wait till just before the 
 wedding to introduce him." 
 
 "No, that's right. I'll ask him to-morrow to 
 set a time." 
 
 When Graham appeared shortly after dinner 
 the following evening, Peggy and Priscilla were 
 addressing invitations. Graham seated him- 
 self lazily in the arm chair and congratulated 
 them on their industry. "Have you addressed 
 all that pile to-day?" 
 
 "Yes, sir. We've been working ever since I 
 got back from the dressmaker's, about four 
 o 'clock. Priscilla stayed to dinner so as not to 
 lose any time. ' ' 
 
 There was a brief silence. Two pairs of pens 
 scratched busily while Graham entertained 
 himself by watching the anxious pucker of 
 Peggy's mouth as she wrote each new address. 
 "By the way," he remarked, "He's coming out 
 to-night. ' ' 
 
 "Who is?" 
 
 "Kennedy." 
 
 The scratching of the pens came to an abrupt 
 stop. "Priscilla," Peggy cried in tones of 
 horror, "Graham has asked that Mr. Ken-
 
 288 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 nedy to call and he's coming this evening." 
 
 "You told me to ask him," Graham de- 
 fended himself. 
 
 ' ' Of course, I want him to come. But I don 't 
 want him to descend on me without warning, 
 and get the impression that you are going to 
 marry a frump." 
 
 "Why, I was just thinking how nice you 
 looked both of you," Graham declared, 
 kindly including Priscilla, who scorned to 
 acknowledge the compliment. She rose, re- 
 turned her pen to the writing desk, and said 
 briefly, "I'm off." 
 
 ' ' Put on your glad rags and come back, Pris- 
 cilla," begged Peggy, who also was making 
 preparations for a retreat. 
 
 1 i Oh, I think not. Mr. Kennedy isn 't coming 
 to see me." 
 
 "It'll be ever so much nicer if he meets some 
 of you before the last minute. Euth says she 's 
 got to put in this evening letter writing, and 
 Amy and Bob are going somewhere." 
 
 "Oh, very well. I'll be back after a little." 
 Priscilla spoke nonchalantly, but as a matter 
 of fact, she was glad of Peggy's insistence.
 
 A SURPRISE 289 
 
 Now that the time was growing so short, she 
 grudged every hour she was away from her 
 friend. As she left by the door, Peggy ran up 
 the stairs, leaving Graham to the companion- 
 ship of his own agreeable anticipations. 
 
 Peggy was back in about twenty minutes, 
 looking, in Graham 's estimation, very much the 
 same, except that her dress was a lighter blue 
 than the other, and her hair, having been freshly 
 combed, did not show as much of the curl. He 
 expressed his opinion and Peggy smiled 
 tolerantly. 
 
 "I wore that old thing because a drop of ink 
 more or less wouldn't matter. It's as old as 
 the hills, and I made it when I didn't know as 
 much about dress-making as I do now. Of 
 course I like to have you think I look nice, no 
 matter what I wear, but now you're going to 
 be married, you'd better learn more discrimina- 
 tion in regard to clothes. It would be dread- 
 ful to have a new dress and you not able to see 
 that it was any prettier than the old one." 
 
 "Very well. Suppose you start on my edu- 
 . cation right away. Tell me the fine points 
 about the rig you've got on." But before
 
 290 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 Peggy could begin, the bell rang, and Graham 's 
 education was left incomplete for the time 
 being. 
 
 Mr. Kennedy was a slender, pleasant- 
 mannered young man, who looked considerably 
 older than Graham, partly perhaps, because he 
 wore eye-glasses. As Peggy greeted him, she 
 was conscious of something hauntingly familiar 
 in his face. "I haven't met you before, have 
 I?" she asked. 
 
 "It hardly seems that I could have met you 
 and not remember it," said young Kennedy 
 gallantly. "I'm very sure I've seen you be- 
 fore, however." 
 
 "And I believe I've seen you, but I don't 
 know where." 
 
 "Hitchcock would say," remarked Graham, 
 ' ' that probably you had been well acquainted in 
 Nineveh or Babylon or some other ancient 
 burg." 
 
 Mr. Kennedy smiled, and took the chair 
 Graham had pulled forward for him. "Who's 
 Hitchcock?" he asked. 
 
 ' ' Oh, a nut that Peggy used to have here till 
 I told her she'd have to choose between us."
 
 A SURPRISE 291 
 
 " Graham, what a misleading thing to say." 
 
 1 'Well, it might give the wrong -impression, I 
 confess. Peggy didn't care much about him 
 herself, but one of her friends had a case on 
 him." 
 
 "Sh!" warned Peggy, in an agony as she 
 heard Priscilla's footsteps outside. She filled 
 the somewhat awkward pause by springing to 
 her feet, crying as she ran to the door, "You 
 needn't ring; I hear you." 
 
 The results of the half hour Priscilla had 
 given to vanity were more evident, Graham 
 thought, than in Peggy's case. Peggy could 
 be disheveled and still irresistible. Priscilla's 
 rather stately beauty was more exacting in its 
 demands. In her dress of pale green voile, 
 which set off her clear pallor and the beauty of 
 her smooth, dark hair, she looked the incarnate 
 spirit of spring. Even Graham stared. 
 
 Peggy, her arm slipped caressingly through 
 Priscilla's, led her forward. "Priscilla, this 
 is Graham's friend, Mr. Kennedy. Miss 
 Combs " 
 
 Peggy stopped short, Priscilla had jumped. 
 Mr. Kennedy's conventional smile had changed
 
 292 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 to startled recognition. "Why, you know each 
 other," Peggy cried. 
 
 "Only why, surely, Peggy, you remember." 
 
 Peggy's vague, irritating certainty of some- 
 thing familiar in Mr. Kennedy's face was sud- 
 denly transformed to recollection. "Oh, of 
 course. The Green Parrot." 
 
 * ' Oh, of course ! The Green Parrot ! ' ' mocked 
 Graham, who had risen on Priscilla's entrance, 
 and now stood looking from one to another of 
 the trio. "Makes it perfectly clear." 
 
 They took their seats, and Peggy explained, 
 helped out by suggestions from the others. 
 As they recalled the absurd experience, the 
 three narrators went off into fits of laughter, 
 but the audience maintained a dignified calm. 
 
 "Take my word for it, John, it's an inscrut- 
 able sex. Now, I would have sworn that this 
 young woman hadn't a thought I didn't share, 
 and look what she 's been keeping from me, lo ! 
 thes-e many months. When we 're alone I shall 
 expect you to give me a full account of what 
 really happened." 
 
 For some reason the discovery that Graham's 
 friend, Kennedy, was the young man whose cof-
 
 A SURPRISE 
 
 fee cup had been invaded by Priscilla's roll 
 seemed to put him at once on the footing of an. 
 old acquaintance. They had a very jolly eve- 
 ning, and it was not till after ten that Priscilla 
 said, "Graham, I think you'd better take me 
 home, now. I've got a busy day before me." 
 
 "You have indeed, poor dear," Peggy cried. 
 "I expect you to finish addressing those invita- 
 tions and do any number of errands. These 
 are trying times for my friends, Mr. Kennedy. 
 They have hardly a minute in the twenty-four 
 hours that they can call their own." 
 
 The young man smiled at her in the ab- 
 stracted fashion of one whose thoughts are on 
 something else. "Won't you let me be your es- 
 cort?" he asked Priscilla. "It would give me 
 the greatest pleasure." 
 
 "Thanks, but it's only a step, and my going 
 early won't break up Graham's evening, for 
 he'll come directly back." She softened her 
 refusal by giving him her hand and saying 
 pleasantly, "I'm glad to have met you prop- 
 erly at last, with a real introduction, you 
 know. ' ' 
 
 "I shall look forward to the next time," said
 
 294 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 young Kennedy, with rather more ardor than 
 conventional courtesy required. "This is our 
 third meeting, I believe. ' ' 
 
 "Third?" exclaimed Peggy, pricking up her 
 ears. "Why, when was the second?" 
 
 "At one of the football games last fall," ex- 
 plained Priscilla. "I was there with Horace 
 Hitchcock, and Mr. Kennedy sat next me." 
 And then recalling the suspicious glances Hor- 
 ace had shot in the direction of the guiltless Mr. 
 Kennedy, Priscilla began to blush. The worst 
 of blushing is that it is much easier to start it 
 than to call a halt. There were innumerable 
 things connected with the thought of Horace 
 that made Priscilla uncomfortable, and now she 
 found herself blushing for them all. The tide 
 of color flooded her smooth forehead and dyed 
 her throat. Peggy's observant eyes detected 
 an unmistakable shadow on Mr. Kennedy 's erst- 
 while radiant face. 
 
 Later, when Graham and herself were alone, 
 she scolded him a little. "You oughtn't to have 
 said that a friend of mine had a case on Hitch- 
 cock. Now Mr. Kennedy knows you meant 
 Priscilla."
 
 A SURPRISE 295 
 
 "Well, is that such a tragedy?" 
 
 "Couldn't you mention to him some day that 
 Horace did admire Priscilla, but that now he's 
 safely married to another. You could bring it 
 in in a casual way, you know." 
 
 Graham looked at her hard. "My dear 
 Peggy," he said, "Just because you yourself 
 have been fortunate unusually fortunate I 
 might say in your love affairs, don't let that 
 lead you into trying your hand at matchmaking. 
 Fooling with high explosives is child's play 
 compared to that, believe me." 
 
 But instead of seeming impressed by the 
 warning, Peggy only answered dreamily, 
 "When he doesn't see Horace at the wedding, 
 he'll probably begin to suspect that it's ancient 
 history. If only Priscilla could learn to speak 
 of him without blushing."
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 A MISSING BRIDE 
 
 IT was two days before Peggy's wedding, 
 and in the front room downstairs Peggy was 
 looking around complacently on her wedding 
 presents. They were very much like the wed- 
 ding presents of other prospective brides. A 
 few were admirably suited to the needs of a 
 young couple of moderate means, about to start 
 house-keeping. Others would have been useful 
 in the establishments of wealthy people who ex- 
 pected to do a great deal of entertaining. And 
 there were still others whose use was prob- 
 lematical, anywhere and under any circum- 
 stances. 
 
 Peggy 's mood, however, was far from critical. 
 Each gift as it came had given her the keenest 
 pleasure, and if it were impossible to find any- 
 thing admirable in the article itself, she could 
 always say, "How awfully kind of them to send 
 it. Everybody's being perfectly dear to me." 
 
 296
 
 A MISSING BRIDE 297 
 
 She approached every newly arrived package 
 with the same feeling with which she had once 
 taken up a bulging Christmas stocking. 
 
 The clock in the dining room, a pert little time- 
 piece with a peremptory voice, struck three. 
 It was characteristic of this particular clock 
 always to strike the hour as if it were reminding 
 somebody of something. On this occasion it 
 reminded Peggy that she had an engagement 
 with the dressmaker at half past three, and that 
 she was to call for Ruth, who had promised to 
 accompany her. As it was impossible to take 
 along a crowd of girls to the dressmaker's 
 rather cramped quarters, Peggy avoided hard 
 feeling by inviting a different girl each day. 
 
 Peggy had hardly reached the top of the 
 stairs when the bell rang, and Sally came rush- 
 ing from the kitchen to answer it. The pros- 
 pect of a wedding in the family had so excited 
 Sally that she was even less responsible for her 
 conduct than usual. Almost the only thing she 
 could be trusted to do was to answer the door- 
 bell, but as the bell rang very often, she suc- 
 ceeded in making herself rather useful. On 
 this occasion a swarthy woman stood outside,
 
 298 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 and in a quick, parrot-like fashion said some- 
 thing Sally did not understand. 
 
 "You want to see Miss Peggy?" Sally de- 
 manded. Such wits as she possessed were not 
 on duty, for ordinarily she would have 
 recognized the stranger's errand, and sent her 
 about her business. As the woman nodded, 
 Sally at once admitted her, showing her into 
 the room where the. wedding presents stood 
 about in picturesque confusion. 
 
 "Miss Peggy," shrieked Sally, forgetting 
 for the moment the lesson impressed on her on 
 innumerable occasions that she was not to save 
 her steps by calling up the stairs, "Somebody 
 to see you." 
 
 It was a minute or two before Peggy came 
 down, and Sally had retreated to the kitchen 
 in the meantime. Peggy who had naturally 
 expected to see an acquaintance, was rather 
 startled to be confronted by a dark-skinned 
 woman with jet black eyes and an oily voice. 
 
 "Buy lace, lady? Very cheap: three inch 
 wide up to nine inch. Very cheap ! ' ' 
 
 Peggy replied politely that she did not care 
 for any lace, reflecting as she spoke that had the
 
 A MISSING BRIDE 299 
 
 woman presented herself a few months earlier, 
 she might have thought it worth while to ex- 
 amine her stock. Having had some experience 
 in the persistence of her kind, she was surprised 
 when the dark woman took her refusal as final, 
 and meekly let herself out. Peggy stepped into 
 the kitchen to warn Sally against her late in- 
 discretion, and came back through the hall, re- 
 flecting that she must hurry, since the dress- 
 maker did not like to be kept waiting. As she 
 passed the open door of the room the vender of 
 lace had so lately quitted, she stopped and stood 
 transfixed. 
 
 One of her wedding presents was missing. 
 She knew exactly the place where it had stood 
 on the center table, flanked on one side by a 
 pair of book-ends, and on the other by a cloi- 
 sonne vase. The gap left by its removal was 
 as obvious to Peggy's startled eyes as the 
 breach in a smile, due to a missing tooth. In- 
 stantly she understood that there was no 
 mystery about its disappearance. She had seen 
 it not ten minutes before, and the only person 
 who had entered the room since then was the 
 woman with lace to sell.
 
 300 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 The discovery went to Peggy's head. The 
 stealing of any of her other possessions would 
 not have affected her in just the same way. 
 But these were her wedding presents, invested 
 with a certain sanctity because of the goodwill 
 they represented, and the occasion which led to 
 their bestowal. It never once occurred to 
 Peggy that she could submit to. su'ch an out- 
 rage. 
 
 She ran out of the house, looking up and down 
 the street, and immediately caught sight of the 
 woman she wanted. Apparently she had sus- 
 pended business for the day, for she was walk- 
 ing, rapidly and making no attempt to dispose 
 of her wares in any of the houses slier passed. 
 Peggy promptly started in pursuit. Her idea 
 was to follow the woman, keeping her in sight 
 until she could encounter a policeman. Peggy 
 had no desire to deprive any human creature, 
 however erring, of her liberty. She hoped the 
 officer of the law would force the surrender of 
 her ill-gotten gains without formally arresting 
 her. But whatever the consequences^ she meant 
 to recover her property. 
 
 According to the calendar' it was the last day
 
 A MISSING BRIDE 301 
 
 of June, but the thermometer proclaimed it 
 mid-July. The heated air quivered. The 
 streets seemed as silent as the thoroughfares 
 of a deserted village. A block from Peggy's 
 home, the woman took the right-hand turning 
 and went down Eossiter Street. Peggy fol- 
 lowed, walking rapidly in her determination to 
 gain on the quick-walking figure on ahead. 
 
 There blocks on Kossiter Street, and then the 
 woman turned north, giving Peggy a clew to her 
 plan. Friendly Terrace lay near the outskirts 
 of the city. A walk of a mile from Peggy's 
 home brought one into a section sparsely 
 settled. It looked as though Peggy's quarry 
 were making for the open country. 
 
 Oh, for a policeman! Peggy rather unjustly 
 resented the scarcity of officers of the law, for- 
 getting how seldom their services were required 
 in the law-abiding part of town. She dis- 
 covered, too, that the woman pursued was un- 
 cannily aware of her pursuer. Though ap- 
 parently she never looked back, she accommo- 
 dated her pace to Peggy's, accelerating her 
 speed, as Peggy quickened hers, so that the 
 distance between them remained about the
 
 302 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 same in spite of Peggy's efforts to lessen it. 
 
 Owing to the lack of policemen, had any re- 
 liable looking man passed her in a car, Peggy 
 believed herself capable of stopping him and 
 commandeering his services. But apparently 
 the heat had driven every one indoors. Two 
 or three delivery wagons passed with small 
 boys handling the reins. One machine glided 
 by, but the driver was a woman. After an 
 hour's chase the two participants in the singu- 
 lar game of " Follow my Leader," came out 
 upon the turnpike, stretching away to the north, 
 white and dusty and hot in the brilliant sun. 
 Here the houses were scattered and stood back 
 from the road. The likelihood of encountering 
 a policeman had become extremely faint. But 
 Peggy set her teeth and pressed forward. 
 
 Graham got off half an hour early this 
 particular afternoon, and reached Peggy's a 
 little before five. Irma, dimpled and sweet, a 
 replica of Dorothy a few years earlier, rushed 
 to meet him squealing with delight, while 
 Dorothy smiled a welcome, her lips pinched 
 tightly together. One of Dorothy's upper 
 front teeth was missing and Dorothy was pain-
 
 A MISSING BRIDE 303 
 
 fully conscious of the lack every minute that 
 she was awake. 
 
 Graham kissed his prospective nieces, 
 greeted the older members of the family 
 cordially, if less effusively, and put the in- 
 evitable question, " Where's Peggy?" 
 
 "Oh, at the dressmaker's of course," sighed 
 Mrs. Eaymond. "I hope she won't keep the 
 poor child very long. It's so dreadfully 
 warm." 
 
 The telephone tinkled, and Dick went to 
 answer it. He scowled as he listened. "Who 
 did you say it was? Oh, wait a minute!" 
 He turned to his mother. "I thought you said 
 Peggy had gone to the dressmaker's." 
 
 "She has. She had a fitting at half past 
 three." 
 
 "Well, this is the dressmaker, and she says 
 Peggy hasn't come." 
 
 "Let me speak to her." Mrs. Eaymond 
 crossed to the phone, with an air of expecting 
 to clear up the puzzle immediately. And 
 hardly had she made herself known, when the 
 door opened and Ruth appeared. "What's be- 
 come of Peggy f She was to call for me a little
 
 304 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 after three, and I've had my hat on waiting for 
 her nearly two hours. " 
 
 What had become of Peggy? She had not 
 kept her engagement with the dressmaker, and 
 Kuth knew nothing of her whereabouts. Mrs. 
 Raymond called up Priscilla and Amy, each of 
 whom disavowed having seen Peggy since noon. 
 And then as there seemed nothing better to do, 
 she went on calling neighbors and friends and 
 trades-people, growing more and more puzzled, 
 moment by moment. For no one had seen 
 Peggy. 
 
 It finally occurred to Peggy's sister, Alice, to 
 make inquiries in the kitchen. Sally informed 
 her that Miss Peggy had come into the kitchen 
 with her hat on, and had said something about 
 the dressmaker. The new girl, who had been 
 engaged to help out for the few weeks before 
 the wedding, confirmed Sally's story, adding 
 that it was a little after three when Peggy left 
 the house. Obviously Peggy had started out 
 with the intention of keeping her appointment, 
 and obviously she had not done so. 
 
 Dinner was ready at six o'clock, but no one 
 was ready for dinner. Peggy's failure to ap-
 
 A MISSING BRIDE 305 
 
 pear at meal-time added to the general con- 
 sternation. Peggy was by nature prompt and 
 methodical, and she had acted the role of cook 
 too often not to realize how the best efforts of 
 that important functionary are frustrated by 
 late arrivals. At quarter past six Mr. Ray- 
 mond went to the telephone and called up the 
 hospitals one after another. But the hot 
 sleepy day had not been productive of auto- 
 mobile accidents, and the only cases of sun- 
 strokes reported were elderly people, four men 
 and one old woman. 
 
 Graham was very pale. A dreadful sus- 
 picion was taking shape in his mind. Could it 
 be that, as the second of July drew near, Peggy 
 had found herself unable to face the situation? 
 Perhaps he had asked too much of her when he 
 had urged her accompanying him to South 
 America. He thought of the innumerable ties 
 that bound her to her native land, and yet he 
 had assumed that she would be ready to leave 
 everything and every one she loved, and go 
 with him to a land of strangers. Graham was 
 no more troubled by excessive humility than 
 other popular young men, but in the present
 
 306 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 emergency he seemed to himself to have put a 
 most preposterous estimate on the value of his 
 own society. He had a horrible conviction 
 that, through his demanding too much, Peggy 
 was lost to him forever. 
 
 It hardly need be said that no one in the anx- 
 ious company shared this particular apprehen- 
 sion. At seven o'clock Peggy's father made 
 up his mind that it would be necessary to ap- 
 peal to the police. But before he could bring 
 himself to act on this conviction, the gate 
 clicked and Irma, standing at the window, her 
 nose flattened against the screen, exploded in 
 a series of joyful shrieks. 
 
 "Aunt Peggy! Aunt Peggy! Oh, it's Aunt 
 Peggy!" 
 
 And Peggy it was, though it took a second 
 glance to be sure. The perspiration trickling 
 over her dusty face had produced a curious 
 piebald effect, and she walked with a notice- 
 able limp. They rushed to the door, greeting 
 her with mingled cries of joy and reproach. 
 All but Graham. He sat down in the darkest 
 corner of the living room and put his hands
 
 A MISSING BRIDE 307 
 
 over his face. The intensity of his relief was 
 almost too much for him. 
 
 Peggy limped in, looking decidedly ashamed 
 of herself. 
 
 ''Have you waited dinner for me? I'm. 
 awfully sorry. " 
 
 "Waited dinner," repeated Mrs. Kaymond, 
 and burst into tears. Peggy's sister Alice 
 caught her by the shoulders and gave her a 
 sharp little shake. 
 
 "Peggy Raymond, where have you been and 
 what have you been doing? Don't you under- 
 stand that we've been frightened to death 
 about you?" 
 
 Peggy dropped into the nearest chair and 
 began on her story. She told of the woman 
 Sally had admitted to the house, the missing 
 wedding present, and the purpose with which 
 she had started in pursuit. They all listened 
 breathlessly, Graham left his corner and stood 
 back of the others, unwilling to miss a word. 
 
 It was not till Peggy's recital brought her to 
 the turnpike that she lost a little of her fluency. 
 At this point she hesitated and seemed to ap-
 
 308 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 predate the difficulty of making matters clear 
 to her audience. "Of course I should have 
 given up then. But somehow I couldn't. I 
 kept hoping that somebody would appear, and 
 it seemed such a shame when I'd followed that 
 thief so far, to give up and go back. I'd made 
 up my mind that as soon as an automobile came 
 along, I'd ask for a lift. I felt if I could only 
 catch up with her I could frighten her into 
 giving me what belonged to me. But nobody 
 passed me, and then when she got to the old 
 toll-gate" 
 
 Mr. Raymond interrupted. "You don't 
 mean you followed her to the toll gate I ' ' 
 
 "Yes, father. Or at least I was almost there. 
 You know there's a cross-road just beyond the 
 gate, and a Ford car came up that cross-road 
 and turned north on the pike. And the woman 
 stopped it " 
 
 "Confederates, I'll bet," cried Dick. 
 
 "No, it looked as if she were just asking 
 some stranger for a ride. And as far as they 
 knew she was only a tired woman carrying a 
 bag and they took her in. And then I saw it 
 wasn't any use to go further."
 
 A MISSING BRIDE 309 
 
 tt~ 
 
 'You surprise me." Mr. Raymond's voice 
 was satirical. "I can't understand why you 
 didn't run after the machine." 
 
 Peggy accepted the sarcastic rejoinder 
 meekly. "Then I turned around and came 
 home. But you see I had put on my new brown 
 shoes because Mrs. Morley wanted to fit my 
 brown dress with the shoes I was going to 
 wear with it, and all at once they began to hurt 
 me terribly. Instead of hurrying I had to 
 slow up, and sometimes I had to stop and wait. 
 I never had anything hurt so." 
 
 "If you'd walked three blocks east," ex- 
 claimed Graham, speaking for the first time, 
 "you could have got a car." 
 
 "I knew it, but I'd come off without my 
 pocket book. I didn't have a penny with me. 
 That was the reason I didn't telephone." 
 
 Peggy looked about her with a crestfallen 
 air. While she was far from realizing the ex- 
 tent of the alarm her family had felt, and 
 would not have believed Graham had he told 
 her of the apprehensions that had tortured 
 him through the terrible time of waiting, she 
 understood that they had all been worried and
 
 310 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 that she had inconvenienced every one by 
 making dinner late. " Don't wait for me any 
 longer," she pleaded. "Have the dinner put 
 on, mother, and I'll be down as soon as I've 
 washed up a little." 
 
 Mrs, Raymond put her arm about her. 
 "Yes, come upstairs, darling. You must have 
 something on those blisters right away. Alice, 
 tell Sally to put on plates for Euth and 
 Graham. ' ' 
 
 It was while they were eating lamb chops, 
 which after an hour and a half in the warming 
 oven might as well have been anything else, 
 that some one thought to put the question 
 Peggy had been dreading. "Do you know 
 what present she stole?" 
 
 Peggy took a hasty sip of her iced tea and 
 looked appealingly at her questioner. But her 
 reluctant manner only aroused the curiosity of 
 every one. 
 
 "I'll bet it was the silver teapot," exclaimed 
 Dick. 
 
 "It doesn't matter what's missing, as long 
 as Peggy herself is here safe and sound," de- 
 clared Mrs. Raymond fervently.
 
 A MISSING BRIDE 311 
 
 "But what did she take?" insisted Alice, 
 eyeing her sister with suspicion. 
 
 Again Peggy forfeited herself with iced tea, 
 and her cheeks, flushed by heat and weariness, 
 took on a deeper hue. "It it really wasn't so 
 valuable, " stammered Peggy. "You know 
 Elvira Bond gave me half a dozen teaspoons 
 that she got by saving soap wrappers or some- 
 thing. They came in a neat little case, and I 
 suppose the woman snatched the nearest 
 thing without looking. I didn't chase her 
 because the spoons were worth so much 
 because well, it was the principle of the 
 thing." 
 
 There was a long moment of silence, and then 
 a roar of laughter. They laughed long and 
 helplessly and wiped their eyes and started all 
 over again. As a rule Peggy could appreciate 
 a joke, even if it was against herself, but on 
 this occasion a rather wry smile was the best 
 she could do. She was beginning to realize 
 that she had been very silly. 
 
 "Well, Graham," remarked Mr. Raymond 
 when he could make himself heard, "In my 
 opinion you're assuming quite a responsibility
 
 312 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 in planning to take this young woman to South 
 America. ' ' 
 
 Graham's eyes met Peggy's and something 
 in his look arrested her attention, a peculiai 
 radiance as if he had just heard a wonderful 
 piece of news. But all he said was, "Pn 
 ready to take the risk, sir."
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 A JULY WEDDING 
 
 PEGGY'S brother Dick had parodied an old 
 rhyme to fit the occasion and sang it with gusto, 
 in season and out of season. It was Dick's 
 voice, caroling in a high falsetto, and breaking 
 ludicrously on an average of once a line, that 
 woke Peggy on the most eventful morning of 
 her life. 
 
 "A wedding day in May 
 Is worth a load of hay. 
 A wedding set for June 
 Is worth a silver spoon. 
 A wedding in July 
 Isn't worth a fly." 
 
 Peggy winked hard and sat up in bed, turning 
 instantly toward the east windows. "Oh," she 
 cried joyously, ''what a glorious day!" And 
 so indeed it was. Apparently the weather 
 man had carefully selected whatever was best 
 
 313
 
 314 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 in all the year, and combined his selections in- 
 to one perfect day in honor of Peggy 's wedding. 
 There had been a little rain the night before, and 
 the air was as sweet as if perfumed by June's 
 roses. There was a freshness that suggested 
 early spring, and something in the breeze as 
 exhilarating as October. Peggy reflected com- 
 placently that this was just her luck. 
 
 She wondered, as she dressed, what she was to 
 do with herself between the hours of eight and 
 six. Her trunk was packed for going away, 
 and the other trunks were ready except for a 
 few articles to be added at the last minute. 
 She had acknowledged every gift she had re- 
 ceived. The dressmaker was through with her, 
 and the wedding dress was hanging in Peggy's 
 closet, with a sheet draped over it that no 
 speck of dust should mar its immaculate white- 
 ness. Peggy decided that her wedding day 
 was to be characterized by elegant leisure. 
 
 Of course this expectation was nat realized. 
 To begin with, there were more presents. 
 They came by parcels post and by express. 
 Deliverymen handed them over as nonchalantly 
 as if they had been ordinary purchases. Others
 
 A JULY WEDDING 315 
 
 came by special messengers, who grinned 
 knowingly when Peggy signed for them. 
 Breakfast was hardly over when it was 
 necessary to send for Graham, that he might 
 assist in opening the packages. But Graham 
 was not as satisfactory in opening packages as 
 a number of other people, Priscilla and Amy, 
 for instance. If Peggy cried ''Isn't that 
 beautiful?" he always looked straight at her 
 as he said "yes," and then it was necessary to 
 remind him that he was supposed to be 
 admiring a piece of silverware or glass. 
 Peggy always said, "How beautiful!" when a 
 package was opened. And then if the article 
 were something she really wanted, she would 
 add, "Isn't it lucky, Graham, that some one 
 thought of that? I don't see how we could 
 have kept house without it." And if it were 
 something quite unsuitable she would cry, 
 "How kind everybody is. I never saw any- 
 thing like it. " 
 
 The present from Peggy's college class came 
 the morning of the wedding day, when it was 
 practically certain that no one was to be 
 married in advance of Peggy. It was a very
 
 316 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 attractive silver vase, with the class motto en- 
 graved about its base. Peggy's delight was 
 marred by one characteristic reflection. "I 
 have so many things. It's almost a pity this 
 didn't go to some girl whose friends weren't 
 so generous." 
 
 "Any one could have had it," Graham re- 
 minded her, "who was ready to take the risk. 
 This is in recognition of your courage, like the 
 Victoria Cross." 
 
 Of course the wedding presents were not 
 going to South America, but were to be stored 
 against the young people's return. "Don't 
 you hate to go away and leave all these lovely 
 things, Graham!" Peggy asked, stroking the 
 gleaming sides of a copper bowl as if it had 
 been a kitten. And then with her usual happy 
 faculty for seeing the bright side, she added, 
 "But think of coming home and finding them 
 waiting for us! Why, it'll be like getting 
 married all over again." 
 
 Wedding presents, however, were not to oc- 
 cupy Peggy's thoughts to the exclusion of 
 other matters. All sorts of affectionate 
 messages kept coming, special deliveries, tele-
 
 A JULY WEDDING 317 
 
 grams, telephone calls. A girl like Peggy, 
 who for twenty-one years and over has been 
 helping to make the world a happier place, is 
 likely to be surprised when she comes to count 
 up her friends. Elaine Marshall, who had 
 moved from the city and now lived with her 
 married sister, came down for the day. "I 
 couldn't stand it, not to be at your wedding, 
 Peggy," she declared. And Lucy Haines 
 walked in about noon, looking so radiant that 
 Peggy at once suspected an especial reason. 
 There was a little pearl ring on the third finger 
 of Lucy 's left hand that Peggy had never seen 
 before. Lucy blushed when she saw Peggy's 
 contemplative gaze focused on it. 
 
 "Yes, Peggy, it's it's Jerry," owned Lucy, 
 looking so proud and happy that she did not 
 seem even distantly related to the disheartened 
 girl who had once thought it was no use trying. 
 "He's grown into such a splendid fellow. 
 Everybody says I'm so lucky. And, Peggy, if 
 it hadn't been for the summer you spent at 
 Doolittle Cottage, it's not likely that either of 
 us would ever have amounted to anything." 
 
 Mary Donaldson called up to say that she
 
 318 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 was coming to the wedding. Her father and 
 cousin had promised to carry her downstairs, 
 and they were going early so she could be in 
 her place before any one else arrived. "I 
 don't believe you're a bit more excited than I 
 am, Peggy," Mary laughed. And another 
 surprise was when Uncle Philander and his 
 wife drove into town, with a bushel or two of 
 flowers piled about them in the buggy. 
 
 "They're not such awful stylish flowers," 
 beamed Aunt Phoebe. "Of course there's a 
 few roses, but most of our bushes bloomed them- 
 selves 'most to death in June and haven't done 
 much since. The rest are just everyday posies, 
 so to speak, but they'll make little bright spots 
 around the house, and anyway, you can't have 
 too many -flowers a/t a wedding." 
 
 At four o'clock the bridesmaids went home 
 to dress. The mother of the flower girl 
 pounced on her and carried her upstairs. 
 
 "Peggy, dear," said Mrs. Eaymond warn- 
 ingly. 
 
 "Just a minute mother. 1 want to tell 
 Graham something." Peggy led her lover into 
 a corner and whispered in his ear, "Don't you
 
 A JULY WEDDING 319 
 
 want to come back and get a glimpse of me 
 after I'm dressed/ r 
 
 "Well rather." 
 
 "Because you know, if you don't like me," 
 dimpled Peggy, "it's not too late to change 
 your mind. ' ' She was inclined to be reproach- 
 ful when Graham caught her in his arms and 
 kissed her before everybody, but Graham in- 
 sisted it was her own fault, and on reflection 
 Peggy decided he was right. 
 
 At six o 'clock the little church was well filled. 
 In spite of Graham's teasing, Peggy's humble 
 friends could hardly be distinguished from 
 their so-called betters. Hildegarde Carey 
 slender and elegant, sat in the pew behind 
 Elvira Bond, and noticed nothing peculiar ex- 
 cept that Elvira blew her nose of tener and with 
 more emphasis than is customary on such oc- 
 casions. It was either that or weep, and 
 Elvira chose the least of the two evils. As for 
 Jimmy Dunn, with his purple necktie and a 
 large scarfpin that resembled a diamond, he 
 was fairly resplendent. 
 
 The march pealed out and the people rose. 
 Up the aisle came the bridesmaids walking
 
 320 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 very slowly. The little flower girl, all smiles, 
 seemed as unconscious as if weddings were an 
 old story in her experience. And then came 
 Peggy on her father's arm, and Elvira Bond 
 was not the only one whose eyes brimmed over 
 as she passed. 
 
 A great deal can happen in five minutes. 
 The organ pealed out again, and now Peggy 
 was Mrs. Graham Wylie. She put her hand on 
 her husband 's arm and smiled up into his face, 
 Peggy's own sunny smile. She had promised 
 for better or for worse, but in her heart of 
 hearts she was confident that the future held 
 only good for the two of them. And as 
 Graham was equally positive on that score, 
 they went down the aisle with illumined faces. 
 
 Only a few besides the two families came to 
 the house from the church. These, with the 
 out-of-town guests like Elaine and Lucy, and 
 the wedding party, filled the cosy little house to 
 overflowing. Mary Donaldson sat in a corner, 
 radiant; and since she could not cross the 
 room to kiss the bride, the bride crossed to 
 kiss her. 
 
 It was after the chicken salad had been dis-
 
 A JULY WEDDING 321 
 
 posed of, and they were passing the ice cream, 
 that Peggy's attention focussed itself on her 
 new friend, Mr. Kennedy. He stood by him- 
 self for the moment and his face was rather 
 grave for a young man, a guest at a wedding. 
 But as he caught her eye, he smiled resolutely 
 and came over to her. 
 
 "I'm sorry you're going away, Mrs. Wylie, 
 just as I met you. It doesn't seem fair." 
 
 "I'm sorry, too," said Peggy. "If we'd 
 only known that night at the Green Parrot that 
 you were a friend of Graham's it would have 
 simplified matters so much." 
 
 Mr. Kennedy's face again lost its smile. He 
 turned and looked the company over. "Your 
 friend Hitchcock isn't here to-night, is he?" 
 
 Peggy was delighted. She had been wishing 
 for a chance to bring Horace into the conver- 
 sation, and here Mr. Kennedy had done it him- 
 self. When again the young man looked at her, 
 he was almost startled by the radiant mischief 
 of her face. 
 
 "Horace Hitchcock here? Oh, dear, no! I 
 can't think of anybody I'd be less likely to ask 
 to my wedding. ' '
 
 322 PEGGY RAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 " That's one point, evidently, on which you 
 and Miss Combs are not in agreement. ' ' 
 
 Peggy pondered. "Priscilla might ask him 
 to her wedding. I don't know. But it's 
 certain he didn't ask her to his." 
 
 Young Mr. Kennedy's start was unmis- 
 takable. "You don't mean he's married?" 
 
 "Yes indeed. There was quite an account 
 of it in the papers. But if you didn't know 
 his name, you wouldn't remember." 
 
 "No, I wouldn't remember," agreed Mr. 
 Kennedy. All at once he was beaming. "I 
 shall be glad when the next two years are up, 
 Mrs. Wylie," he cried boyishly. "I have a 
 hunch that you and I are going to be great 
 friends." 
 
 A moment later he joined Priscilla, and from 
 that time on followed her about like her 
 shadow, and the observant Peggy smiled ap- 
 proval. She was not in the least discomfited 
 by Graham's reference to high explosives. 
 The most dangerous things in the world, in her 
 estimation, were misunderstandings. 
 
 At ten o'clock the bride went upstairs to 
 change to her little going-away suit with the
 
 A JULY WEDDING 323 
 
 Eton Jacket, that made her look hardly older 
 than the Peggy Raymond who entered college. 
 And then the good-bys began. "We'll be back 
 in a few days," said Peggy as she kissed each 
 one, but even that assurance failed to give com- 
 fort. For though Peggy and Graham were 
 coming back for twenty-four hours, they were 
 to sail on the sixth. Peggy's friends returned 
 her smiles bravely, but there was hardly one 
 who did not struggle to keep back the tears. 
 
 They crowded out on the porch to see her go. 
 Some one hurled an old shoe as the taxi-cab 
 glided away. Peggy leaned from the window 
 to wave her hand, and then the darkness 
 swallowed her up. 
 
 Amy, Ruth, and Priscilla stood side by side. 
 The tears were running down Ruth's cheeks, 
 and Priscilla 's eyes were wet. Amy had 
 forced herself to smile during Peggy's pro- 
 tracted leave-taking and 'the smile persisted, 
 though it had become a grimace. 
 
 "Is this place called Friendly Terrace?' 
 Amy demanded tragically, "Or is it the the 
 Dismal Swamp." 
 
 "Or the desert of Sahara." suggested Pris-
 
 324 PEGGY EAYMOND'S WAY 
 
 cilia, a quaver in her voice showing that the 
 suggestion was not altogether a joke. 
 
 ' * Girls ! ' ' for a moment Ruth struggled with 
 a sob, but she conquered it and went on res- 
 olutely, "I don't know who named Friendly 
 Terrace, but I do know it was Peggy who made 
 the name fit. And we've got to keep it up. 
 We can't let it become like other little streets 
 where nobody cares for his neighbor. We've 
 got to show what Peggy meant to us by by " 
 
 "By keeping the home fires burning," inter- 
 polated Amy, and Ruth nodded as if the familiar 
 phrase said all she had wished to say. 
 
 As the others crowded indoors, declaring 
 after immemorial fashion that there had never 
 been a prettier wedding nor a lovelier bride, 
 Peggy's three friends stood side by side; 
 Ruth's hand was fast in Amy's, and Amy's 
 arm was about Priscilla's waist. And while 
 none of them spoke, each of them in her heart 
 was silently pledging herself to keep Friendly 
 Terrace what Peggy had made it. 
 
 THE END
 
 MARK GRAY'S HERITAGE 
 
 A Romance 
 
 ?% By Eliot Harlow Robinson jp? 
 
 Author of "Smiles: A Rose of the Cumberlands," 
 "Smiling Pass," "The Maid of Mirabclle," etc. 
 
 Cloth, I2mo, illustrated, $1.90 
 
 "What is bred in the bone will never come out of 
 the flesh" 
 
 MR. ROBINSON'S distinguished success came with the 
 acclaim accredited to his novel, SMILES, "The Best- 
 Loved Book of the Year" and its sequel, SMILING 
 PASS. With delicate humor and a sincere faith in the 
 beautiful side of human nature, Mr. Robinson has 
 created for himself a host of enthusiastic admirers. 
 In his new book he chooses a theme, suggested perhaps 
 by the old proverb quoted above ("Pilpay's Fables"). 
 His setting is a Quaker village, his theme the conflict 
 between grave Quaker ideals and the strength and hot 
 blood of impulsive Mark Gray. 
 
 Here is a book that is worthy of the reception ac- 
 corded SMILES by all readers who appreciate a story 
 of deep significance, simply yet powerfully built upon 
 fundamental passions, wrought with a philosophy that 
 always sees the best in troubled times. 
 
 The enthusiastic editor who passed on MARK 
 GRAY'S HERITAGE calls it hardly too emphati- 
 cally "A mighty good story with plenty of entertain- 
 ment for those who like action (there is more of that 
 in it than in any other of Mr. Robinson's novels). The 
 reading public will unquestionably call it another 'cour- 
 age book' which they called the SMILES books, you 
 know The language is both strong and smooth. The 
 s story has a punch !" 
 
 &a^wxQ^^
 
 POLLY THE PAGAN 
 
 Her Lost Love Letters 
 jj i^-**z, 
 
 By Isabel Anderson g|R? 
 
 With an appreciative Foreword by Basil King 
 Cloth decorative, I2mo, illustrated, $1.90 
 
 ISABEL ANDERSON, who heretofore has confined her 
 literary talents to writing of presidents and diplomats 
 and fascinating foreign lands, contributes to our list 
 her first novel, POLLY THE PAGAN, a story of 
 European life and "high society." The story is un- 
 folded in the lively letters of a gay and vivacious Amer- 
 ican girl traveling in Europe, and tells of the men 
 whom she meets in Paris, in London or Rome, her 
 flirtations (and they are many and varied!) and excit- 
 ing experiences. Among the letters written to her are 
 slangy ones from an American college boy and some 
 in broken English from a fascinated Russian Prince 
 (or was he disillusioned, when after dining at a smart 
 Parisian cafe with the adorable Polly he was trapped 
 by secret police ?) ; but the chief interest, so far as 
 Polly's affaires d'amour are concerned, centers around 
 the letters from a young American, in the diplomatic 
 service in Rome, who is in a position to give intimate 
 descriptions of smart life and Italian society. 
 
 The character drawing is clever, and the suspense as 
 to whom the fascinating Polly will marry, if indeed the 
 mysterious young lady will marry anybody, is admi- 
 rably sustained. 
 
 8 
 
 &a&&Q^&c^
 
 UNCLE MARY 
 
 A Novel for Young or Old 
 
 By hla May Mullins & 
 
 Author of "The Blossom Shop" books, "Tweedie," etc. 
 Cloth decorative, I2mo, illustrated, $1.75 
 
 SINCE the great success of POLLYANNA there have 
 been many efforts to achieve the "GLAD BOOK" style 
 
 Trade Mark 
 
 of fiction, but none so successful as Mrs. Mullins' 
 UNCLE MARY. 
 
 Here is a story, charming in its New England village 
 setting, endearing in its characters, engrossing in its 
 plot, and diverting in its style. The PAGE imprint 
 has been given to many books about beautiful char- 
 acters in fiction, Pollyanna, Anne Shirley, Rose Webb 
 of "SMILES," and Lloyd Sherman of the "LITTLE 
 COLONEL" books. To this galaxy we now add 
 "Uncle" Mary's protege, Libbie Lee. 
 
 Mrs. Mullins is an author gifted with the ability to 
 appeal to the young in heart of whatever age. Her 
 characters are visually portrayed. Her situations have 
 the interest of naturalness and suspense. The reader 
 of UNCLE MARY will become in spirit an inhabitant 
 of Sunfield; will understand the enjoyment of the sud- 
 den acquisition of wealth, a limousine, and an adopted 
 child (!), by the sisters, "Uncle" Mary and "Aunt" 
 Alice; will watch with interest the thawing and re- 
 juvenation of "Uncle" Mary, the cure of Alice, and the 
 solving of the mystery of the wealth of sweet little 
 Libbie Lee.
 
 &Xm&XCtt&XC8*t&^V^^ 
 
 THE RED CAVALIER 
 
 Or, The Twin Turret* Mystery 
 
 By Gladys Edson Loc^e 
 
 Cloth decorative, I2mo, illustrated, $1.90 
 
 HERE is a mystery story that is different ! The sub- 
 tlety and strangeness of India poison and daggers, 
 the impassive faces and fierce hearts of Prince Bardai 
 and his priestly adviser; a typical English week-end 
 house party in the mystery-haunted castle, Twin Tur- 
 rets, in Yorkshire; a vivid and contrasting background. 
 
 And the plot! Who is the mysterious Red Cavalier? 
 Is he the ghost of the ancestral portrait, that hangs in 
 Sir Robert Grainger's strange library? Is he flesh and 
 blood, and responsible for the marauding thefts in the 
 neighborhood? Is he responsible for Prince Kassim's 
 murder? Or is it only coincidence that one of the 
 guests at the masked ball happened to wear the costume 
 of the Red Cavalier? 
 
 Miss Locke has been able to weave a weird and ab- 
 sorbing tale of modern detective romance, the strange- 
 ness of India in modern England. 
 
 There is Lady Berenice Coningsby, a bit declasse; 
 Ethelyn Roydon, more so; Princess Lona Bardai, "Little 
 Lotus-Blossom," sweet and pathetic; Mrs. Dalrymple, 
 the woman of mystery; Miss Vandelia Egerton, the 
 spinster owner of Twin Turrets. There is dashing Max 
 Egerton and the impeccable Lord Borrowdean ; Captain 
 Grenville Coningsby; Prince Kassim Bardai, with the 
 impenetrable eyes, and Chand Talsdad, his venerable 
 adviser. Which of them is the Red Cavalier? 
 
 wiag^iyGSi^^
 
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 III: II 
 
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