"We might as well go in, too," said Bobby disconsolately. "She's used up so much time we couldn't do the gym justice."

Promptly at two o'clock, white-haired Mrs. Eustice mounted the platform and tapped a little bell for silence.

The princ.i.p.al was a gracious woman of perhaps fifty. Her snow-white hair was piled high on her head and her dark eyes were bright and keen.

Wonderful eyes they were, seeming to gaze straight into the youthful eyes that stared back affectionately or curiously as the case might be. Mrs.

Eustice's gown was of black or very dark blue silk, made simply and fitting exquisitely. Straight, soft collar and cuffs of dotted net outlined the neck and wrists, and her single ornament was a tiny watch worn on a black ribbon.

"I wish Ada Nansen would take a good look at her," muttered Bobby.

"I am so glad to welcome you, my girls," began Mrs. Eustice.

Betty thrilled to the magic of that modulated voice, low and yet clear enough to be heard in every corner of the large room. Surely this lovely woman could teach them the secret of cultivated, dignified and happy young womanhood.

The princ.i.p.al spoke to them briefly of her ideals for them, explained the few rigid rules of the school, and asked that all exercise tact and patience for the first week during which the rough edges of new schedules might reasonably be expected to wear off.

"I want to have a little personal talk with each one of you," she concluded. "Your corridor teachers will consult with me and will tell you when you are to come to me. And I hope you are to be very, very happy here with us at Shadyside."

A soft clapping of hands followed this speech, and Mrs. Eustice stepped down from the platform to be instantly surrounded by the girls who had spent other terms at the school.

After the older girls had spoken to the princ.i.p.al, the newcomers began to move forward. They were presented by their corridor teachers, who seemed to possess a special faculty to remember names, and here and there Mrs.

Eustice recognized a girl through the a.s.sociation of ideas.

As Miss Lacey swept her girls forward, Ada Nansen and Ruth Gladys Royal happened to head the ranks. Mrs. Eustice put out her hand to Ada, then gazed down at her in evident astonishment.

CHAPTER XII

THE LOST TREASURE

"Diamonds," whispered Betty to Norma Guerin, who seemed depressed. "She wears three diamond rings and one sapphire and a square-cut emerald. And her wrist-watch is platinum set with diamonds."

Mrs. Eustice gazed at the soft little hand she held for a few moments, then released it. She said nothing.

"Ah, your mother wrote me of you," was the princ.i.p.al's greeting to the Littell girls. "You look like her, Louise. And Bobby is much like her father as I remember him."

"This is Betty Gordon," said the loyal Bobby, indicating her chum.

"Mother wrote about her, too, didn't she?"

"Indeed she did," a.s.sented Mrs. Eustice warmly. "I must have a special talk with Betty soon, for she has an ambitious program before her. And here are Libbie and Frances from the state I remember so affectionately from girlhood visits there."

But it was Norma and Alice Guerin, sensitive Norma and shy Alice, who were welcomed most cordially after all.

"So you are Elsie Guerin's daughters!" said the princ.i.p.al, putting an arm around Norma and holding her hand out to Alice. "My own dear mother taught your mother when she was a little girl with braids like yours.

And your dear grandmother used to give the most wonderful parties.

People talk about them to this day. It was at her Rose Ball I first met my husband. You must go up the north road some day and see the old Macklin house."

Norma and Alice fairly glowed as they went back to their rooms with the other girls. Ada Nansen had heard, and she was regarding them with evident respect.

Norma and Alice might have been uneasy had they heard Ada's comment when she and Ruth were once more in their own rooms.

"They must have money," argued Ada, "though I never saw such ordinary clothes. Giving b.a.l.l.s and parties in the lavish Southern style costs, let me tell you. Probably they have some fine family jewels in that shabby trunk."

"I'll tell you what I think," said Ruth Gladys wisely. "I think the money is all used up. Probably they're here as charity pupils for old friendship's sake."

This speculation was duly stored up in Ada Nansen's mind to be brought out when needed.

After dinner Miss Anderson played for them to dance in the broad hall, but every one was tired from train journeys, and at nine o'clock they voluntarily sought their rooms.

"Get into a kimono and brush your hair in here," hospitably suggested Betty, and Bobby seconded her by flinging the suitcases under the beds.

All of the rooms were fitted with pretty day-beds so that a cover quickly transformed them into couches and the bedrooms into sitting rooms.

Four gay-colored kimono-wrapped figures came pattering in presently and curled up comfortably on the beds. Norma and Alice were the last to arrive, and when they did come they mystified their friends by prancing in silently and waltzing gaily about the room.

"Oh, girls!" they chortled when they had tired of this performance, "what do you think?"

"We couldn't help hearing," said Norma deprecatingly.

"Laura Bennett called us in," declared Alice.

"Don't sing a duet," commanded Bobby sternly. "What are you talking about? One at a time. You tell, Norma."

"Laura Bennett called us into her room," obediently recited Norma. "Miss Lacey was talking to Ada and Ruth. You could hear every word without listening--that is without eavesdropping--you know what I mean. Mrs.

Eustice must have spoken to Miss Lacey, because she told the girls they would have to send all the trunks home except one apiece. Ada must put all her jewelry in the school safe and at the Christmas holidays she is to take it home and leave it there. Both of them have to wear their hair down or in a knot--you know they have it waved now and done up just like my mother's. And Miss Lacey is to go over their clothes to-morrow and tell 'em what they can keep!"

"I'm glad some one has some sense!" was Bobby's terse comment.

Something in Norma's face told Betty that she would like to speak to her alone, so half an hour later when the girls had dispersed for the night, she made a bent nail file an excuse to go to the Guerins' room.

"I was hoping you'd come, Betty," said Norma gratefully. "We have to put out the lights at ten, don't we? I'll try to talk fast. You see, Alice and I want to tell you something."

A fleecy old-fashioned shawl lay across the bed and Norma flung this about Betty's shoulders.

"Alice's kimono is flannel and so is mine," she explained in answer to the protest. "You never met Grandma Macklin, did you, Betty?"

"No-o, I'm sure I never did," responded Betty thoughtfully. "Does she live with you?"

"Yes. But while you were at the Peabodys she was visiting her half-sister in Georgia," explained Norma. "She is mother's mother, you know."

"What was it Mrs. Eustice said about her?" questioned Betty with interest. "Did she live near here? Was that when your mother went to this school?"

"It was a day school then, you know," put in the laconic Alice.

"Yes, and grandma lived in a perfectly wonderful big house," said Norma.

"It must be fully five miles from here. Uncle Goliath, an old colored man, used to drive her over every day and call for her in the afternoon.

Mother has always been determined Alice and I should graduate from Shadyside."