But Sidney’s Ghost went back to school, where busy days waited for both girls; and Mr. Thorne was plunged into such a rush of affairs, with some new undertakings in which he was interested, that any importance attaching in his mind to the fact of Sidney’s having a “double,” was at least partly erased by more immediately important matters.
One little fear in the back of Shirley’s consciousness caused her enough uneasiness to make her write about her latest experiences in Chicago to her mother. It was after the second term was well started and followed the first long letter and several cards. It was her first reference to the resemblance.
She gave the details of the accidental meeting and of her visit at Sidney’s home. Then she asked the question. “Mother,” she wrote, “you don’t suppose that I am anybody’s child but yours, do you? You haven’t adopted me? I am your child as little Betty used to say ‘by borning?’ I feel sure that I am, and yet this queer likeness has given me a miserable doubt, when I let myself get foolish about it. I don’t want to say anything to Auntie, so I write straight to you. Tell me what you think, or know, the next time you write, please.
“Meanwhile, I’ll not worry, for everything about school is going wonderfully. I’ve written reams, I know; but you had to be told about the various complications. I like Sidney, in spite of her being such a proud piece of humanity. Several days after we came back to school she said to me, going in to class, ‘Why didn’t you tell me that you had been out to our house?’ I was surprised to find her behind me and I said, ‘I’d have been glad to if there had been a suitable opportunity.’ And Sidney flushed up at that, for she had not been near me, and the only time I ever went to her room to speak to her she was not exactly hospitable.”
CHAPTER XVII.
SIDNEY MAKES A DISCOVERY.
More and more Shirley grew into the life of the school. Hope Holland was her most intimate friend, though her room-mate, Madge Whitney, continued to be a close chum. Dulcie Porter, Hope’s room-mate, was often with Shirley after the Christmas vacation, and Hope and Dulcie, it will be remembered, were of the famous Double Three. Caroline Scott, Betty Terhune, and later, more in class relations, Olive Mason and her chum, Barbara Sanford, were Shirley’s firm friends.
Though she was invited by both Hope and Caroline to Chicago for the spring vacation, Shirley accepted the urgent invitation of Madge and went with her to a quiet little town on the lake shore in Michigan, where she met Madge’s friends and had a real rest besides. This was due largely to Madge’s sensible mother.
Letters and cards came from Dr. and Mrs. Harcourt, but there was no reference to Shirley’s question. From different comments Shirley knew that they had not received that letter, though later news from her was acknowledged. They had been at that time upon an African expedition and had returned by a different route than that touching the point where they had ordered their mail to follow them. In consequence, the letter was received only just before their sailing for America, having followed them around as letters to travelers abroad sometimes do.
Hope, who had never cared much for clothes, blossomed out after the vacation with some particularly pretty and tasteful frocks, chiefly hung away, however, during the days of the uniform and the dinners when the old frocks would do as well. But the time of the spring Prom was appearing.
Mac Holland had instructed his sister to arrange that he should be with Shirley on that occasion and Hope had talked it over with Shirley. The result was that Dick was to be one of this foursome, as Mac called it, though Hope insisted that Shirley must introduce Dick to all the girls. Knowing Dick, Shirley consented to this, and hoped that it would turn out as it should.