NEW EXPERIENCES
It did not take Clayton Reeve very long to gain a pretty clear idea of the condition of things at the Misses Carter’s school, or to realize what influences had been brought to bear upon his only daughter. To say that he was keenly disappointed but mildly expresses it, and he reproached himself bitterly for having left her so long to the care of strangers. He remained with Toinette until the school closed for the holidays, and the time was the happiest she had ever known. Nor was it for her alone, for the other girls came in for their full share. He was a very liberal man, and it gave him genuine pleasure to make others happy.
The Misses Carter lost no opportunity of putting their establishment in a favorable light, for they had a strong suspicion that they were in a fair way to lose something of much more tangible value to themselves: a very handsome income. But Mr. Reeve easily saw through their little foibles, and was not deceived by the pretty veneer into believing that all was strong and firm beneath.
He had traveled about the world too much during the past six years not to have learned something of human nature, and to read it pretty correctly. Furthermore, his feeling of self-reproach made him keenly alive to every change upon Toinette’s speaking countenance, and when he saw the look of questioning surprise which came over it when one or the other of the Misses Carter made some playful overture at petting her, or one of the other girls, he drew his own deductions.
When vacation arrived he settled his bill for the year, bade them a courteous farewell, and, with Toinette, “scraped the dust from his feet and left the mansion.” Then came a two-weeks’ holiday such as she had never even dreamed of. Mr. Reeve took rooms in one of New York’s finest hotels, and gave himself up to the pleasure of renewing his acquaintance with his daughter. That holiday was never forgotten by either of them, but for very different reasons.
“By Jove,” he said to himself more than once, “I’ve let a good bit of precious time, and many happy hours, slip away, if I’m not mistaken, and I don’t know whether I shall ever catch up.”
During their stay in the city Mr. Reeve went in quest of his old college chum, Sydney Powell, Cicely’s father, and had an interview with him that was brief, but very much to the point.
“Go ahead, Clint, old chap, and find what is needed for the little girls, if you can. Cicely will never go back to the Carter school, and I should be glad to have the girls keep together. They seem fond of each other. How would you like to run out to Montcliff to look up that school? I’ve had fine reports of it from Fred Hubbard, whose daughter is a pupil there?”
And so it came to pass that directly after vacation the two girls were escorted to Sunny Bank, as the school was called, and, after a very satisfactory talk with its sensible principal, Mr. Reeve left them to her care, feeling sure that this time he had not made any mistake.
Toinette and Cicely had adjoining rooms, and nothing could have been daintier than the room appointments. From their windows they could look out over a wide sweep of the western valley, where the sun was just sinking behind the hills, and leaving upon the sky a glorious promise of the day to follow.
They were still busy arranging their pretty trifles about the rooms when the soft chime of the Chinese gong in the wide hall below announced dinner. Thus far they had not seen any of the other girls, but as they stepped from their rooms they were met by Miss Preston, who said, as she slipped an arm about each waist:
“I do not forget how lonely I felt when I first entered a strange school, so let me try to make it easier for my new girls by introducing some of my old ones; real old,” she added, laughingly, as she called to two girls who were curled up on one corner of the big divan at the lower end of the hall.
“Come here, chicks, and let me make you acquainted with Miss Reeve and Miss Powell. These are Miss Gordon and Miss Osgood, my dears, but as we are all sort of ‘sisters, cousins and aunts’ in this big home, I’ll just hint right off that their home names are Ruth and Edith, who will be glad to welcome my Toinette and Cicely.”
By this time they had reached the cheerful dining-room, and with a very significant exchange of glances Toinette and Cicely took their seats, the latter whispering under cover of the bustle caused by the entrance of the other pupils: “My goodness, if Miss Carter had ever spoken like that to us, we should have fallen flat, shouldn’t we?”
Ruth sat upon one side, and Edith upon the other, and it did not take the new girls long to discover that the dinner hour must be one of the pleasantest of the day, for all talked and chatted in the liveliest manner, discussing various happenings, and again and again appealing to Miss Preston, who was not one whit behind in the spirit of good-fellowship which prevailed.
There were six tables, each accommodating ten people, and a teacher sat at the head of each. In every instance a teacher who was wise enough not to observe too much, but who in reality saw everything, although she could laugh and joke with the girls, put them at their ease, and at the same time set them so perfect an example that few girls would have cared to fail in following it. Far from exercising a restraining influence, they proved the jolliest of companions, as the repeated appeals to their opinions, or the requests for some anecdote or amusing story, evidently old favorites, amply testified.
When the pleasant dinner was ended the girls gathered in the big hall, where Toinette and Cicely were introduced to many of the others.
“What have we to do now?” asked Toinette, whose sharp eyes had been observing everything worth observing, and whose active mind had received more impressions within the past hour than it had been called upon to receive in a year. It is needless to add that she was quick enough to profit by them, and to appreciate that in this school were taught more surprising things than chemistry or science.
“Do?” asked Ruth.
“Yes; isn’t there some RULE to be observed after dinner?” and a rather ironical tone came into Toinette’s voice.
“Yes; come along, and Edith and I’ll show you the rule, as you call it,” answered Ruth, as she caught up the big basket-ball lying upon one of the chairs in the hall, flew through the door with it, across the piazza and into the gymnasium beyond.
After an instant’s hesitation the two girls followed, joining her and Edith, who had run Ruth a lively race.
“You don’t mean to say that the teachers let you run and romp like this, do you?” demanded Cicely.
“Let us!” cried Edith in surprise. “Why shouldn’t they? We aren’t doing any harm, are we?”
“No, I don’t suppose there is any harm, but if we had done such a thing at Miss Carter’s, what do you think would have happened, Toinette?”
Toinette pursed her mouth into the primmest pucker, rolled her eyes in a horrified way, clasped her hands before her, and said, in a tragic tone: “Young ladies! Such conduct is most unseemly,” in such perfect mimicry of Miss Carter that Ruth and Edith shouted.
“Well, all I can say is, that I’m thankful we were not sent to that school; aren’t you, Ruth?” said Edith.
“Better believe I am,” was the feeling reply. “I get skittish even in this blessed place sometimes, but if I had been sent there I’d have been just like one of those little red imps that Miss Preston has standing on her writing table.”
“Yes, you’d have felt all rubbed the wrong way, just as Cicely and I feel, and just hate the sight of a teacher, and want to do everything you could to plague them,” said Toinette, petulantly.
“Well, you won’t want to do that here” answered Edith, emphatically. “If you cut any such capers in this school, it won’t be the teachers who will go for you, but the girls,” with a significant wag of her head.
“The girls?” asked Cicely, with a puzzled expression.
“Certain. We think our school about the best going, and we aren’t going to let anyone else think differently, if we can help it; are we, Ruth? So, if a girl takes it into her head to be rude and cranky to the teachers, or other girls, she finds herself in a corner pretty quick, I can tell you.”
“Suppose you break the rules?” asked Toinette.
“Aren’t any to break,” answered happy-go-lucky Ruth, as she pranced down the big room after the ball, which had gone bouncing off.
“No rules!” incredulously.
“Not a single one. All you’ve got to do is to be nice to everybody, remember you’re a gentlewoman (or you wouldn’t be here, let me tell you), and do your jolly best to pass your examinations. If you don’t it is your own fault, and you have to suffer for it; no one else, that’s sure; for you can have all the help you ask for.”
Toinette and Cicely exchanged glances.
“Oh, I daresay you don’t believe us,” said Edith, who had correctly interpreted the glances, “but just you wait and see. All the new girls think the same, and I daresay that we should have, too, if we had come here from some other school; but, thank goodness, we didn’t. There aren’t any more schools like this, are there, Ruth?”
“Nary one; there’s only one, and we’ve got it,” cried the irrepressible Ruth, and two weeks later the girls found that, truly, no rules could be broken where none existed.