“I don’t like to borrow money of you and Olive, Jean, when I haven’t paid back the last,” Frieda said, after a slight, uncomfortable moment of surprise on the part of the other ranch girls, “but what can I do? I suppose I have just got to write to Ruth and Jack, asking them to pay it for me.”
“How could you ever have made such a bill, Frieda?” Jean demanded, looking over her cousin’s shoulder in the flicker of the candle light.
“Clothes,” the answer came back in a weak, small voice.
Unexpectedly Jean laughed. “Oh, well, I need not preach, baby. What I wanted to tell you myself, when the lights went out, is that I became a backslider in New York and with Ruth’s consent told Gerry and Margaret that we were not absolutely paupers. I just had to spend some of the money I had saved, the things in New York were so fascinating. So I haven’t much left to lend you, Frieda, and I am awfully sorry, for Ruth says the mine is not yielding quite as much as it formerly did and we must all be economical, for such a dreadful lot of money is needed right away for Jack. I am pretty glad we did not tell the girls at Primrose Hall that we were rich, because it may turn out that we are not after all; gold mines are often uncertain.”
“Then I suppose I will have to go to prison for debt,” Frieda murmured. And both older girls were heartless enough to laugh. “Oh, no, it need not go as far as that, Frieda,” Olive assured her, “for I have hardly spent a cent since coming to Primrose Hall, so I have nearly enough to help you out, so you need not worry. Besides Miss Winthrop says that however much I may dislike my grandmother and she me, I cannot refuse to allow her to do for me now that she has discovered my whereabouts, for the money that is now hers should rightfully have come to my father even though she did not wish him to have it.”
“Remember the fortune the old gypsy told you, Olive,” Jean repeated, just as they were separating for the night. “‘And a fortune untold, Shall make for your feet a rich pathway of gold.’ I used to think she meant our mine.”
CHAPTER XXII
READJUSTMENTS
In the weeks that followed the discovery of Olive’s connection with the wealthy old patroness of Primrose Hall a student of psychology would have had an interesting opportunity in the study of the changed attitude of her schoolmates toward her. In the first place, from being an Indian girl of uncertain origin, Olive had suddenly become a heroine of romance and also there was the possibility that she might in time be an heiress, should her grandmother change in her feelings toward her and disinherit the Harmons. In any case, the law would certainly allow her some portion of the old estate. So you see that instead of being looked down upon as the most undesirable student at Primrose Hall, the fourth ranch girl had suddenly become exalted upon a pedestal, and perhaps it is just as deceptive in this world to look up to other people as it is to look down upon them, since a fair judgment can only be attained by standing face to face.
Truly Olive had no more desire for this second false position than she had for the first, but now her shyness, once regarded as ill breeding, was called haughtiness and her classmates stood a little in awe of her. The position was indeed a trying one for everybody concerned in it, for scarcely could the girls who had been unkind to Olive, now throw themselves about her neck begging her forgiveness, simply because so unexpected a turn had come in her fortunes. Of course, some of the unwise girls did do this, but not those with better judgment and taste, for they understood that Olive must be approached more slowly and with greater tact.
Among this second class of girls was Winifred Graham. Now no one could be more vexed than she was with herself for her persistent snubbing of Olive from the first day of her entrance into Primrose Hall, not because she liked Olive any better than she had at first, but because Winifred only cared for persons who might be useful to her, and now this ridiculous Olive with her romantic history, might be very useful indeed. The point at issue was the bestowal of the Shakespeare prize of several hundred dollars, given each year by Madame Van Mater to the Junior students in Jessica Hunt’s class. Mention has been made before that the three girls who stood closest in line for this prize were Winifred, Olive and Gerry. Now Winifred supposed that Olive would of course withdraw from the contest, since she could hardly take a prize presented by her own grandmother, but what Winifred feared was that Olive might throw the balance of her influence in Gerry’s favor. Very carefully she now undertook to show her change of feeling toward the ranch girls without offending them or making them suspicious by too great haste. A confidential talk with Jessica Hunt, who had always been their friend, was one of the methods Winifred first employed, but there was little assistance to be had from Jessica. For in the first place Jessica declared immediately that Olive was not to give up her effort to win the Shakespeare prize. Jessica had talked the matter over both with Olive and Miss Winthrop and they had decided in council that Olive need not give up her cherished ambition on account of her altered connection with Madame Van Mater. The prize had been freely offered without reservations to whatever girl in the Junior class should have the best yearly record, write the best Shakespeare essay at the close of the school year and give the best recitation from any one of the Shakespeare plays.