Part 23 (1/2)
CHAPTER XII-MR. FABIAN PLOTS FOR FACTS
The roses kept for more than two weeks, filling the Studio rooms with fragrance, but keeping their secret as to who had sent them to Polly.
She had gone to everyone she knew and tried to find out who had given them to her. Then she beguiled Mr. Ashby into finding out if Mr. Dalken was the guilty one. And when he was found innocent, she bribed Mr.
Dalken to find out if the Latimers or the Evans sent them-but she could not see why anyone should spend so much money on her, and try to hide the fact.
When Mr. Fabian was satisfied that it was not one of their old friends who had sent the roses, he thought of a way to find out. The box had had the name on its cover, of one of Fifth avenue's most fas.h.i.+onable florists, so he went there and tried to learn what he wanted to know, by asking the proprietor.
But the man smiled and shook his head. ”We are never allowed to divulge state secrets, Mr. Fabian.”
”Not even when that secret concerns a protegee of mine? I do not wish to use the knowledge, but merely to relieve my mind.”
”If I were to tell you, Mr. Fabian, I should have to also tell the six other individuals who begged me to tell them confidentially who ordered the roses.”
”Six others! Have others been here to ask this same question?” asked Mr.
Fabian, amazed.
The florist laughed. ”Yes, that pretty miss seems to be very popular.
Who is she, anyway?”
”A little girl that attends my art cla.s.s, and I am bound to keep her mind free from nonsense until her education is finished.”
”Can you keep a secret-on your oath?” asked the florist.
”Yes, yes!” eagerly agreed Mr. Fabian, thinking he was now going to hear who sent the roses.
”Well, then, this much I may tell you-just to ease your fears: the individual who sent those roses is as anxious as you can be, to keep the girl's heart and mind free from nonsense and to allow her to complete her art education without thoughts of beaux.”
”Is that all you've got to say?”
”My goodness, don't you appreciate that much! You only wanted to know something to ease your mind, and now I have told you.”
”How do _you_ know what the gentleman thinks or wants?”
”I was told so by the one who ordered the roses. But I did not tell you it was a gentleman.”
This was still more disconcerting to Mr. Fabian, but he never told a soul that he had visited the florist. He did wonder, however, if the man had given the others the same confidence he had imparted confidentially to him.
Polly, the cause of all this secret concern of her friends, had forgotten all about the valentine, and was devoting her entire time and attention to the absorbing lessons at art school.
Easter Week came early, and the term beginning immediately after the Easter Holidays, would start a course on mural decorations, and the study of tapestries. So interesting had their night-cla.s.ses become, that Polly and Eleanor neglected their studies at day-school. Anne noticed their daily marks and worried over it. At last she consulted with Mr.
Fabian.
”You must realize, Mr. Fabian, that the girls are still young. Even if they were prepared to enter the profession they are proposing to follow they would be too young in years to make a success of it. People are not apt to turn over contracts for art or decorating, to girls under twenty.
Therefore I advise you to make them drop their night school until after they have caught up in their day cla.s.ses.”
Mr. Fabian was secretly pleased at the news that his two pet scholars preferred _his_ teachings to the dry high-school lessons. But he dared not express his satisfaction to Anne.