Part 3 (1/2)
”Never!” Glory laughed. ”It isn't the age for miracles, auntie. The most you can hope for is that I'll learn to _study_. That's bad enough!”
”Well, kiss me, Little Disappointment, and run away. I wrote your father to-day, and what do you think I told him?”
”That I was a very good girl and he was to send on that ring right off; that you were actually worried about me, I was studying so hard; that--”
”That you were a dear girl,” Aunt Hope laughed softly. ”Now off with you!”
In the middle of the night Glory woke out of a dream that she was at the tip-top head of the geometry cla.s.s, and in Latin the wonder of Centre Town Seminary for Young Ladies. The moonlight was streaming in on her face and found it laughing at the absurdity of the dream.
”The dream belongs to the Other Girl, not me. She's the one that ought to have the chances, too. I wish I could help her--why!” Glory sat up in bed, wide awake. Something had occurred to her.
”Why, of course. Why didn't I think of it before!” she said aloud.
”I'll ask Aunt Hope--no, I'll _do_ it.” And then she tumbled back into the pillows to think out her plan. If the Other Girl could have known!
Chapter IV.
Two things prevented the immediate divulging of Glory's plan. She chafed at them both impatiently. On the way to the train the next morning Judy Wells waylaid her. That was one.
”I'm going, too,” Judy announced cheerfully. ”Of course you're delighted--I knew you would be! You see, I was taken violently homesick for the old Seminary, so I thought I'd run along with you and spend the day. I tried to work up a little enthusiasm in the other girls, but it was no use.”
At any other time Glory would have been delighted enough at Judy's lively company, but to-day she wanted to propose her new plan to the Other Girl in the threadbare clothes. Judy would be dreadfully in her way about doing that. She would have to put it off a day. Glory never liked to put things off.
The other thing that interfered was the tiny boy she found sitting beside the Other Girl when she got on the train. He was almost too small to interfere with anything! Such a bit of a creature, in trousers almost too short to deserve the name! And beside him was tilted a tiny crutch that instantly suggested Tiny Tim to d.i.c.kens-loving Glory. Then she remembered that the Other Girl had spoken of a ”Tiny Tim” the day before. So the Other Girl must have read d.i.c.kens, too.
”Here's a good seat,” Judy said, dropping into the one just ahead of the two shabby figures.
Glory nodded cordially as she pa.s.sed them, but how could she do any more? She could not introduce Judy when she didn't know the Other Girl's name herself! And, besides--well, Judy was not the--the kind to introduce to her. Instinctively Glory recognized that.
In between Judy's gay chatter, bits of child-talk crept to Glory's ears from behind, with now and then a quiet word from the Other Girl.
She found herself listening to that with distinctly more interest than to Judy.
”No let's play it, Di,” the child-voice piped eagerly, and there was a little clatter of the tiny crutch as it was tucked away out of sight under the seat.
”Can't see it now, can you?”
”Not a splinter of it, Timmie.”
”I guess not! An' you wouldn't ever s'pose anybody was lame, would you? Not _me!_”
”_You!_ The idea, Timmie!”
The child-voice broke into delighted laughter.
”Well, then let's begin. Play I'm very big, Di--oh, 'normous! You playin' that? An' play both my legs are twins--of course you must play that. An' that I could run down this car if I wanted to, faster'n--oh, faster'n ever was! Just lickety-split, you know! You playin' it?”
Glory could not hear the low reply, but the child-voice was clear enough.
”Now s'posin' that man 'cross the car got up an' came back here--play he did--an' said up real loud, 'See here, boy, you 'mind me of when I was young. _I_ was big an' straight an' had twin legs, too!' Oh, my!