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Page 50
"Hurry, then," laughed Phil. "You've no time to lose in getting ready.
And don't you worry about your 'enjoyer'--it's the strongest part of
your anatomy in my opinion. I've never known any one with such a
capacity. It's forty-horse power at the very least."
Only a matinee programme was all that she brought back with her from
that memorable outing, but long after it had grown yellowed and old, the
sight of it in her keepsake box brought back many things. One was that
sensation of flying, as they whirled through snowy parks and along
Riverside drive, past historic places and world-famous buildings. And
the delightful sense of being considered and cared for, and entertained,
quite as if she had been a grown lady of six and twenty instead of just
a little school-girl, six and ten.
How different the streets looked! Not at all as they had that morning,
when she wandered through them, bewildered and lost. It was a gay
holiday world, as she looked down on it from her seat beside Phil. She
wished that the drive could be prolonged indefinitely, but there was
only time for the briefest spin before the hour for the matinee. More
than all, the programme brought back that bewitching moment when, keyed
to the highest pitch of expectation by the entrancing music of the
orchestra, the curtain went up, and the world of Peter Pan drew her into
its magic spell.
It was a full day, so full that there was no opportunity until nearly
bedtime to explain to the girls the cause of her morning disappearance.
It seemed fully a week since she had started out to find her lost
shilling, and such a trivial affair now, obscured by all that had
happened afterward. But the girls laughed every time they thought about
it while they were undressing, and Mary heard an animated conversation
begin some time after she had gone to bed in the studio davenport. She
was too sleepy to take any interest in it till Betty called out:
"Mary, your escapade has given me the finest sort of a plot for a
_Youth's Companion_ story. I'm going to block it out while I am here,
and finish it when we get back to school. If it is accepted I'll divide
the money with you, and we'll come back on it to spend our Easter
vacation here."
Mary sat up in bed, blinking drowsily. "I'm honestly afraid my enjoyer
_is_ wearing out," she said in a worried tone. "Usually the bare promise
of such a thing would make me so glad that I'd lie awake, half the
night to enjoy the prospect. But somehow I can't take it all in."
Fortunately it was a tired body instead of a tired spirit that brought
this sated feeling, and after a long night's sleep and a quiet day at
home, Mary was ready for all that followed: a little more sight-seeing,
a little shopping, another matinee, and then the week-end at Eugenia's.
The short journey to Annapolis and the few hours with Holland did not
take much time from the calendar, but judged by the pages they filled in
her journal, and all they added to her happy memories, they prolonged
her holidays until it seemed she had been away from Warwick Hall for
months, instead of only two short weeks.
CHAPTER X
HER SEVENTEENTH BIRTHDAY
"Please, Miss Lewis, _please_ do," came in a chorus of pleading voices,
as half a dozen Freshmen surrounded Betty in the lower hall, one snowy
morning late in January. "I think you _might_ consent when we all want
one so tremendously."
"Come on down, Mary Ware," called A.O., catching sight of a wondering
face peering over the bannister, curious to see the cause of the
commotion. "Come down here and help us beg Miss Lewis to be
photographed. There's a man coming out from town this morning to take
some snow scenes of the place, and we want her to pose for him. Sitting
at the desk, you know, where she wrote her stories, with the editor's
letter of acceptance in her hand. Some day when her fame is world-wide a
picture of her wearing her first laurels will be worth a fortune."
"Oh, Betty! Have they really been accepted?" cried Mary, almost tumbling
down the stairs in her excitement, and forgetting the respectful "Miss"
with which she always prefaced her name when with the other girls.
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