Neither of the two girls knew how they walked up on the stage. Before them swam “a sea of upturned faces.” It was impossible to tell one person from another. When Madge and Phil overcame their fright they discovered that they were among the twelve girl graduates, who formed a white semi-circle about the stage, and that Miss Matilda Tolliver was making an address of welcome to the audience.
Phyllis had no dreaded speech ahead of her. She looked out over the audience and saw her father and mother, Dr. and Mrs. Alden; and Madge’s uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Butler; but Madge could think of nothing save the terrifying fact that she must soon deliver her valedictory.
“Madge,” whispered Phil softly, “don’t look so frightened. You know you have made speeches before and have acted before people. I am not a bit afraid you will fail. See if you can find Mrs. Curtis and Tom. There they are, smiling at us from behind Eleanor and Lillian.”
Readers of “Madge Morton, Captain of the ‘Merry Maid’,” will remember the delightful fashion in which Madge Morton, Eleanor Butler, Lillian Seldon and Phyllis Alden spent a summer on a houseboat, which they evolved from an old canal boat and named the “Merry Maid.”
How they anchored at quiet spots along Chesapeake Bay, made the acquaintance of Mrs. Curtis, a wealthy widow, and what came of the friendship that sprang up between her and Madge Morton made a story well worth the telling.
In “Madge Morton’s Secret” the scene of their second houseboat adventure found them at Old Point Comfort, where, as Mrs. Curtis’s guests, they partook of the social side of the Army and Navy life to be found there. The origin of Captain Madge’s secret, and of how she kept it in spite of the humiliation and sorrow it entailed, the mysterious way in which the “Merry Maid” slipped her cable and drifted through heavy seas to a deserted island, where her crew lived the lives of girl Crusoes for many weeks, form a narrative of lively interest.
In “Madge Morton’s Trust” the further adventures of the “Merry Maid” were fully related. For the sake of the trip the happy houseboat girls saddled themselves with Miss Betsey Taylor, a crotchety spinster, who was troubled with nerves, and who offered to pay liberally for her passage on their cosy “Ship of Dreams.”
Madge’s faith and unshakable trust in David Brewster, a poor young man who did the work on Tom Curtis’s yacht, which made the trip with the “Merry Maid,” her championing of David when suspicion pointed darkly toward him as a thief, and her unswerving loyalty to the unhappy youth until his innocence was established, revealed the little captain in the light of a staunch true comrade and doubly endeared her to all her companions.
Madge heard Miss Matilda Tolliver announce that the valedictory would be delivered by Miss Madge Morton. Phyllis gave her companion a little nudge, and somehow Madge arrived at the front of the stage and stood under a huge arch of flowers. Just above her head swung a great bell. Everyone was smiling at her. Madge was seized with a dreadful case of stage fright. Her tongue felt dry and parched. She tried to speak, but no sound came forth.
Mrs. Curtis’s lovely face, with its crown of soft, white hair, smiled encouragingly at her. Tom was crimson with embarrassment. Lillian and Eleanor held each other’s hands. Would Madge never begin her valedictory?