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Page 16
CHAPTER IV
"AYE, THERE'S THE RUB!"
True to the course she had laid out for herself, Mary was as dumb next
morning as if she had really lost the power of speech. Judging from her
manner one would have thought that she was alone in the room, and that
she was having a beautiful time all by herself. She was waiting for
Ethelinda to make the advances this time, and as she did not see fit
even to say good-morning, the dressing proceeded in a silence so
profound that it could almost be felt.
There was a broad smile on Mary's face most of the time. She was ready
to laugh outright over the absurd situation, and from time to time she
cast an amused glance at Lloyd's picture, as if her amusement were
understood and shared. It was wonderful how that life-like picture
seemed to bring Lloyd before her and give her a delightful sense of
companionship, and she fell into the way of "thinking to it," as she
expressed it. The things she would have said aloud had Lloyd been with
her, she said mentally, finding a satisfaction in this silent communion
that a less imaginative person could not have experienced.
"I wish you could go down to breakfast with me, Princess," she thought,
turning for a last glance when she was dressed, and pausing with her
hand on the door-knob. "I dread to go down alone before all those
strangers."
Dinner, the night before, had been a very stately affair, with Madam at
the head of the table in the long banquet hall, and Hawkins in solemn
charge of his corps of waiters. But breakfasts were to be delightfully
informal, Mary found a few minutes later, when she paused at the dining
room door and saw many small round tables, each cozily set for six: five
pupils and a teacher. Betty, presiding at one, looked up and beckoned to
her.
"You're a trifle early, but come on in. You're to have a seat here by
me, with Elise and A.O. just around the corner. Now tell me what has
happened to give you that 'glorious morning face,' as Stevenson puts it.
You look as if you had found some rare good fortune."
"I have, but I didn't know I showed it." Mary's hands went up to her
face as if she expected to feel the expression that Betty saw. "I am so
happy to think that I'm to be at your table. And I'm glad that I can
stop playing dumb for awhile. Oh, but it has been funny up in our room
this morning. I took your advice, and I want to tell you about it before
the other girls come down."
Betty laughed heartily as Mary pictured herself in bed under the
umbrella, and smiled understandingly when she told about finding a
make-believe chum in Lloyd's picture.
"I know, dear," she answered. "I used to do that way with god-mother's
picture when I was a lonely little thing at the Cuckoo's nest. I'd
whisper my troubles and show her my treasures, and feel that she kept
watch over me while I slept. It comforted me many a time, when there was
no one else to go to, and is one of my dearest recollections now of
those days when I felt so little and lonesome and uncared for."
"How Jack would laugh at me," exclaimed Mary, presently, "if he knew
that one of my air-castles had collapsed. He is always teasing me about
building sky-scrapers without any foundation. On my way out here Mrs.
Stockton told me a lot of stories about her school days. She roomed with
the Judge's sister, and she heard so much about him and he heard so
much about her through this sister, that they got to sending messages to
each other in her letters. Then they exchanged photographs, and finally
they met when he came on the Commencement, and the romance of their
lives grew out of it. I kept thinking how romantic it would be to have
your brother marry your dearest chum, someone you already loved like a
sister--and that if my room-mate turned out to be lovely and sweet and
charming, all that I hoped she'd be, how interesting I could make it for
Jack. There's no society at all in Lone-Rock, and he never can meet any
nice girls as long as he stays there."
"And you don't think he would be interested in Ethelinda?" asked Betty
mischievously. "An heiress and a girl with such a distinguished air? She
certainly has that even if she doesn't measure up to your standard of
beauty. He might be charmed with her. You never can tell what a man is
going to like."
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