Part 19 (1/2)

”My Veezy-vee!” she cried. ”It was my room! V., do you hear? It was our room that horrid wretch was robbing. My dear, if we had been there we should have been murdered in our beds, I know we should. Peggy Montfort has saved our lives. Isn't it perfectly awful?”

”That she should have saved your lives?” asked the Snowy Owl, laughing.

”Come to your senses, Vanity, and don't strangle Peggy. She's black in the face, and I shall have to set about saving her life if you don't let her go.”

Released from Viola's embrace, Peggy gasped, and shook herself like a Newfoundland puppy.

”Don't be ridiculous, Vanity!” she said, looking at once pleased and shamefaced. ”It wasn't anything, of course; it was just what any one else would have done. But do look out for your things! They are scattered all about the lawn; he threw away a lot of them when he first came out, and we shall be stepping on them if we don't take care. Oh!

oh, please don't say anything more about it. It was just the merest chance I happened to go up.” This was to Vivia Varnham, who, trying to overcome her ungraciousness, was expressing her grat.i.tude for what Peggy had done. It was evidently an effort and was not pleasant for either girl.

The girls scattered over the lawn, picking up here a hairpin, there a brooch or buckle. It really seemed as if Vanity Fair was stocked like a jeweller's shop. Gertrude Merryweather, standing by Peggy, uttered an exclamation. ”My dear! Peggy! Why, you are all over blood! You are bleeding now. What--where--oh! oh, Fluffy, _look_ here!” Bertha came running, as Gertrude lifted Peggy's arm, which was indeed dripping blood. Both girls exclaimed in horror, and Bertha turned quite white; but Peggy looked at it coolly.

”Oh!” she said. ”That must be where I went through the window after him.”

”The window?”

”Yes, didn't you hear the crash? He smashed the window in Miss Russell's study and got out, and I followed him, of course. It isn't anything.

Why, I didn't feel it till you spoke.”

”That is excitement!” said the Snowy Owl. ”You must come in and be bandaged this minute, Peggy! Come right along to the Nest; I have bandages and lint all ready.”

The Snowy Owl was all on fire with ardour and sympathy. Peggy looked at her in surprise, but the Fluffy Owl laughed. ”You have struck the Snowy's hobby,” she said. ”She is going to study medicine, you know. Go along; she will be happy all the rest of the day, bandaging and cosseting you.”

”But it doesn't hurt!” said Peggy, still wondering.

”Never mind!” said the Snowy Owl. ”It ought to hurt, Peggy Montfort, and it will hurt in a little while. Come along and be bandaged!” and, meekly wondering, Peggy went.

CHAPTER XIII.

PEGGY VICTRIX!

”Well, it certainly was a great success!” said the Scapegoat. It was the day after the reception, and she had drifted into the Owls' Nest toward twilight, and now stood by the mantelpiece, swaying backward and forward in the light, wind-blown way she had.

”A great success!” she repeated, thoughtfully. ”Why, it was actually pleasant! How did you manage it?”

”We didn't manage it,” said honest Bertha. ”It just came so. Everybody was ready to have a good time, and had it; that was all.”

”More than that!” said Grace, absent-mindedly. ”There has to be a knack, or something, and you have it. I haven't. I couldn't do it, even if I wanted to, and I don't think I do.”

”Do what?” said the Snowy.

”Be an Owl!” said Grace. Suddenly she left her hold of the shelf, and turned upon them almost fiercely.

”Why should I?” she exclaimed. ”Tell me that, will you? It is all natural to you. Your blood flows quietly, and you like quiet, orderly ways, and never want to throw things about, or smash a window. I tell you I have to, sometimes. Look here!”

She caught up a vase from the shelf, and seemed on the point of flinging it through the closed window, but Gertrude laid her hand on her arm firmly. ”You may have a right to throw your own things, my dear,” she said, good-naturedly. ”You have no possible right to throw mine, and 'with all respect, I do object!'”

Grace gave a short laugh, and set the vase down again; but she still looked frowningly at the two girls, and presently she went on.