Part 22 (1/2)

”No; they were going out on the other side, where they had just left Miss Stephens, because _that_ was the way they would take to go straight to Miss Marr's. Don't you see? Ray Armitage's cunning! Now, if _we_ go out on this side, and take the elevated, we shall get ahead of them, and--”

”Well, I just sha'n't do anything of the kind! I'd like to see myself playing private policeman like that! If the girl is such a blooming idiot as this, she won't pay any attention to you! No, I guess I don't try any such missionary work, to be laughed at by all the fellows in town.”

”Laughed at!” A glance upward as she said this, and Kate caught the grin on Peter Van Loon's face, and burst forth: ”Oh, that's all your manliness is worth! You're afraid,--afraid some other selfish fellows will laugh at you for doing your duty.”

”'Tisn't _my duty_!”

”No, it isn't, Kate; he's right.”

Kate turned about in astonishment, for it was Hope who had spoken, and Hope who went on speaking,--

”And _you_--_you_ ought not to go, Kate; Dorothea would--would--”

”Be madder than ever. But what _can_ be done?”

”_I'll_ go.”

”_You?_”

”Yes, with Mrs. Sibley. I've just caught sight of her; see, she is over there talking to Johnny. If I tell her how it is--what I want to do, she'll understand, she'll be glad to help; and Dorothea will listen to her, when she wouldn't to you or to me, I dare say.”

”Well, that's a much more sensible plan than yours, Kate,” commented Schuyler Van der Berg, as Hope darted off; ”but all the same it's my opinion that Miss Dorothea Dering isn't going to be kept from that matinee performance, even if they catch her in time.”

”Which they won't,” spoke up Peter, as he looked at his watch.

CHAPTER XX.

And Peter was right; for, as Mrs. Sibley and Hope neared the theatre, they saw Dorothea's nodding plumes just disappearing through the wide open doorway.

”And we're too late,” cried Hope,--”too late, after all.”

”Too late to try to prevent the girl from going into the theatre,--yes, and I thought we should be when we started; there had been too much time lost before you spoke to me. We should have taken the car that preceded the one that we came in; but I doubt if it would have done any good if we _had_ been earlier. But I'll tell you what we'll do now. We'll go in to the matinee ourselves. Miss Marr,” smiling down at Hope, ”would be perfectly willing that you should go under my chaperonage.”

”Oh, yes, yes, of course.”

”You see, in doing this, we may be able to help this foolish girl, after all, by taking her home under our escort, after the matinee is over. She will hurry out, naturally, to get home before dark, and I am sure even such a harum-scarum creature will see that it is wiser for her to go back to Miss Marr's in our company than with young Armitage.”

”Mrs. Sibley, you don't think it is wrong, do you, for us to keep all this from Miss Marr,--to go on covering everything up from her while we try to get Dorothea out--out of all these queer ways of hers? It makes me feel as if--as if there might be something sly and underhand in going on like this,--something like being disloyal to Miss Marr, and deceiving her.”

”You needn't worry about that, my dear. I know Angelique Marr, and I am sure it would be a relief to her to have Dorothea helped out of her queer ways, as you put it, by girls like you and Kate. Miss Marr knows perfectly well that a _teacher's_ opposition wouldn't influence a girl like Dorothea favorably,--that it would be more likely to rouse a counter opposition. It is only girls of her own age who would be likely to influence her; and so, knowing this, the teacher has to be silent a good many times when she may suspect things that she would _like_ to oppose; then, when the flagrant offence is forced upon her, there would be no alternative but to see that the offender was punished according to the stated rules of the school government, if the school itself was to be respected and to maintain its position.”

Greatly comforted by these words, Hope followed Mrs. Sibley into the theatre. There had been no difficulty, even at this late moment, in obtaining very good back seats,--seats from which one could command an excellent view of the audience, if not of the stage; and Hope at once began a careful survey of this audience, her far-seeing young eyes roving rapidly from section to section in keen investigation. She was suddenly interrupted in this investigation by a whisper from Mrs.

Sibley.

”Aren't you looking too far down in front? Isn't that the girl?”

”Where?”

”Two rows in front of us, to the right.”