And without another word Miss Winthrop quietly arose and left the room.
CHAPTER XIX
NEW YEAR’S EVE
Several weeks had passed since the interview between Olive and Miss Winthrop on the evening of Jean’s defeat, and now the Christmas holidays at Primrose Hall were well nigh over. For twelve days, save for Olive and its owner, the great house had been empty of all its other pupils and teachers; now in another thirty-six hours they would be returning to take up their work again.
The time had been long and lonely for Olive, of course, for Jean and gone into New York to visit Gerry Ferrows and Margaret Belknap and Frieda had departed south with the two Johnson sisters. The ranch girls had not wished to leave Olive alone and each one of them had offered to remain at school with her, but this sacrifice could hardly be accepted because Olive had made no friends who had wished her to be with them. Jessica Hunt would have liked to have had Olive visit her, but she had no home of her own and her sister’s apartment was crowded with babies; Margaret and Gerry, who had been kinder since their common disappointment, had invited her for week ends, but these Invitations Olive had quietly declined. All she would have cared for in a trip to New York was an opportunity to see Jack, and this privilege was still denied the ranch girls.
Of course, Ruth had been informed that Olive was to be left alone at Primrose Hall with only Miss Winthrop as her companion during the holidays, and one afternoon had hurried out to see what arrangements could be made for her pleasure. However, after a serious half hour’s talk with Miss Winthrop and a shorter consultation with Olive, she had gone away again content to leave the fourth ranch girl in wiser hands than her own.
And though the two weeks may have been long and lonely for Olive, yet they had never been dull, for each moment she was hoping and praying to hear some news from old Laska and each hour being drawn into closer intimacy with Miss Winthrop. For now that the discipline of school life had been relaxed, the principal of Primrose Hall showed herself to her favorite pupil in a light that would have surprised most of her students. She was no longer unsympathetic or stern, but treated Olive with an affection that was almost like a mother’s. Each evening in her private study before a beautiful open fire the woman and girl would sit close together under the shadow of “The Winged Victory,” reading aloud or talking of the great world of men and cities about which Miss Winthrop knew so much and Olive so little. But of the secret of the girl’s past her new friend did not encourage her to talk for the present.
“If you have told me all you know, Olive, then it is better for us not to go into this subject again until we hear from the Indian woman, and then should she fail us, I must try to think of some other plan to help you.”
And so one by one the holidays went by, as days will go under every human circumstance, and yet no word had come from Laska, though it was now the afternoon of New Year’s eve. Olive had been alone all morning and unusually depressed, for although she had not heard what she so eagerly waited to hear, she had learned that the surgeons had at last decided an operation must be performed on Jack. Ruth had written her that there was supposed to be some pressure from a broken bone on Jack’s spine that made it impossible for her to walk, and although the operation might not be absolutely successful, Jack herself had insisted that it should be tried.
The snow had been falling all morning and the neighborhood of Sleepy Hollow had never been more beautiful, not even in its Indian summer mists. If Olive could go for a walk she felt that she might brace up, for certainly she did not intend to let Frieda and Jean find her in the dumps on their return from their holidays. Miss Winthrop would probably go out with her, as she had been attending to school matters all morning, seeing that the house was made ready for the return of her students, and Olive felt the fresh air might also do her good. They had eaten lunch together, but Miss Winthrop had not been seen since.
While Olive dispatched one of the maids to look for her friend she herself went into the rooms where she had been accustomed to find her in the past two weeks, but neither in her study, nor in the library, nor in the drawing rooms, could she be found and by and by the maid came back to tell Olive that Miss Winthrop had gone out and would probably not return till tea time. She had left word that Olive must not be lonely and that she must entertain herself in any way she desired. Well, Olive knew of but one thing she wished to do: she would go for a walk and she would go alone. School was not in session, so school rules were no longer enforced, and by this time Olive had become thoroughly familiar with the nearby neighborhood.