A SHADOW ON THE PATH

Across the campus the ivy procession wound its lovely length, flanked by rainbow clad Junior ushers immensely conscious of themselves and their importance as they bore the looped laurel chains between which walked the even more important Seniors, all in white and each bearing an American Beauty rose before her proudly, like a wand of youth.

At the head of the procession, as president of the class, walked Antoinette Holiday, a little lady of quality, as none who saw her could have helped recognizing. Her uncle, watching the procession from the steps of a campus house, smiled and sighed as he beheld her. She was so young, so blithe-hearted, so untouched by the sad and sordid things of life. If only he could keep her so for a little, preserve the shining splendor of her shield of innocent young joy. But, even as he thought, he knew the folly of his wish. Tony would be the last to desire to have life tempered or kept from her. She would want to drain the whole cup, bitter, sweet and all.

Farther back in the procession was Carlotta, looking as heavenly fair and ethereal as if she had that morning been wafted down from the skies. Out of the crowd Phil Lambert’s eyes met hers and smiled. Very sensibly and modernly these two had decided to remain the best of friends since fate prevented their being lovers. But Phil’s eyes were rather more than friendly, resting on Carlotta, and, underneath the diaphanous, exquisite white cloud of a gown that she wore, Carlotta’s heart beat a little faster for what she saw in his face. The hand that held her rose trembled ever so slightly as she smiled bravely back at him. She could not forget those “very different” kisses of his, nor, with all the will in the world, could she go back to where she was before she went up the mountain and came down again in the purple dusk. She knew she had to get used to a strange, new world, a world without Philip Lambert, a rather empty world, it seemed. She wondered if this new world would give her anything so wonderful and sweet as this thing that she had by her own act surrendered. Almost she thought not.

Ted, standing beside his uncle, watching the procession, suddenly heard a familiar whistle, a signal dating back to Holiday Hill days, as unmistakable as the Star Spangled Banner itself, though who should be using it here and why was a mystery. In a moment his roving gaze discovered the solution. Standing upon a slight elevation on the campus opposite he perceived Dick Carson. The latter beckoned peremptorily. Ted wriggled out of the group, descended with one leap over the rail to the lawn, and made his way to where the other youth waited.

“What in Sam Hill’s chewing you?” he demanded upon arrival. “You’ve made me quit the only spot I’ve struck to-day where I had room to stand on my own feet and see anything at the same time.”

“I say, Ted, what train was Larry coming on?” counterquestioned Dick.

“Chicago Overland. Why?”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I am sure. He wired Tony. What in thunder are you driving at? Get it out for Pete’s sake?”

“The Chicago Overland smashed into a freight somewhere near Pittsburgh this morning. There were hundreds of people killed. Oh, Lord, Ted! I didn’t mean to break it to you like that.” Dick was aghast at his own clumsiness as Ted leaned against the brick wall of the college building, his face white as chalk. “I wasn’t thinking guess I wasn’t thinking about much of anything except Tony,” he added.

Ted groaned.

“Don’t wonder,” he muttered. “Let’s not let her get wind of it till we have to. Are you sure there there isn’t any mistake?” Ted put up his hand to brush back a refractory lock of hair and found his forehead wet with cold perspiration. “There’s got to be a mistake. Larry I won’t believe it, so there!”

“You don’t have to believe it till you know. Even if he was on the train it doesn’t mean he is hurt.” Dick would not name the harsher possibility to Larry Holiday’s brother.

“Of course, it doesn’t,” snapped Ted. “I say, Dick, is it in the papers yet?”

“No, it will be in an hour though, as soon as the evening editions get out.”

“Good! Dick, it’s up to you to keep Tony from knowing. She is going to sing in the concert at five. That will keep her occupied until six. But from now till then nix on the news. Take her out on the fool pond, walk her up Sunset Hill, quarrel with her, make love to her, anything, so she won’t guess. I don’t dare go near her. I’d give it away in a minute, I’m such an idiot. Besides I can’t think of anything but Larry. Gee!” The boy swept his hand across his eyes. “Last time I saw him I consigned him to the devil because he told me some perfectly true things about myself and tried to give me some perfectly sound advice. And now I’m damned if I believe it. Larry is all right. He’s got to be,” fiercely.

“Of course, he is,” soothed Dick. “And I’ll try to do as you say about Tony. I’m not much of an actor, but I guess I can carry it through for for her sake.”

The little break in the speaker’s voice made Ted turn quickly and stare at the other youth.

“Dick, old chap, is it like that with you? I didn’t know.”

Ted’s hand went out and held the other’s in a cordial grip.

“Nobody knows. I I didn’t mean to show it then. It’s no good. I know that naturally.”

“I’m not so sure about that. I know one member of the family that would be mighty proud to have you for a brother.”

The obvious ring of sincerity touched Dick. It was a good deal coming from a Holiday.

“Thank you, Ted. That means a lot, I can tell you. I’ll never forget your saying it like that. You won’t give me away, I know.”

“Sure not, old man. Tony is way up in the clouds just now, anyway. We are all mostly ants in our minor ant hills so far as she is concerned. Gee! I hope it isn’t this thing about Larry that is going to pull her down to earth. If anything had to happen to any of us why couldn’t it have been me instead of Larry. He is worth ten of me.”

“We don’t know that anything has happened to Larry yet,” Dick reminded. “I say, Ted, they must have got the ivy planted. Everybody’s coming back. Tony is lunching with me at Boyden’s right away, and I’ll see that she has her hands full until it is time for the concert. You warn Miss Carlotta, so she’ll be on guard after I surrender her. I’m afraid you will have to tell your uncle.”

“I will. Trot on, old man, and waylay Tony. I’ll make a mess of things sure as preaching if I run into her now.”

Tony thought she had never known Dick to be so entertaining or talkative as he was during that luncheon hour. He regaled her with all kinds of newspaper yarns and related some of his own once semi-tragic but now humorous misadventures of his early cub days. He talked, too, on current events and world history, talked well, with the quiet poise and assurance of the reader and thinker, the man who has kept his eyes and ears open to life.

It was a revelation to Tony. For once their respective roles were reversed, he the talker, she the listener.

“Goodness me, Dick!” she exclaimed during a pause in what had become almost a monologue. “Why haven’t you ever talked like this before? I always thought I had to do it all and here you talk better than I ever thought of doing because you have something to say and mine is just chatter and nonsense.”

He smiled at that.

“I love your chatter. But you are tired to-day and it is my turn. Do you know what we are going to do after luncheon?”

“No, what?”

“We are going to take a canoe out on your Paradise and get into a shady spot somewhere along the bank and you will lean back against a whole lot of becoming cushions and put up that red parasol of yours so nobody but me can see your face and then ”

“Dicky! Dicky! Whatever is in you to-day? Paradise, pillows and parasols are familiar symptoms. You will be making love to me next.”

“I might, at that,” murmured Dick. “But you did not hear the rest of my proposition. And then I shall read you a story a story that I wrote myself.”

“Dick!” Tony nearly upset her glass of iced tea in her amazement at this unexpected announcement. “You don’t mean you have really and truly written a story!”

“Honest to goodness such as it is. Please to remember it is my maiden effort and make a margin of allowance. But I want your criticism, too all the benefit of your superior academic training.”

“Superior academic bosh!” scoffed Tony. “I’ll bet it is a corking story,” she added unacademically. “Come on. Let’s go, quick. I can’t wait to hear it.”

Nothing loath to get away speedily before the newsboys began to cry the accident through the streets, Dick escorted his pretty companion back to the campus and on to Paradise, at which point they took a canoe and, finally selecting a shady point under an over-reaching sycamore tree, drifted in to shore where Tony leaned against the cushions, tilted her parasol as specified at the angle which forbade any but Dick to see her charming, expressive young face and commanded him to “shoot.”

Dick shot. Tony listened intently, watching his face as he read, feeling as if this were a new Dick a Dick she did not know at all, albeit a most interesting person.

“Why Dick Carson!” she exclaimed when he finished. “It is great a real story with real laughter and tears in it. I love it. It is so so human.”

The author flushed and fidgeted and protested that it wasn’t much just a sketch done from life with a very little dressing up and polishing down.

“I have a lot more of them in my head, though,” he added. “And I’m going to grind them out as soon as I get time. I wish I had a bigger vocabulary and knew more about the technical end of the writing game. I am going to learn, though going to take some night work at the University next fall. Maybe I’ll catch up a little yet if I keep pegging away.”

“Catch up! Dick, you make me so ashamed. Here Larry and Ted and I have had everything done for us all our lives and we’ve slipped along with the current, following the line of least resistance. And you have had everything to contend with and you are way ahead of the rest of us already. But why didn’t you tell me before about the story? I think you might have, Dicky. You know I would be interested,” reproachfully.

“I I wasn’t talking much about it to anybody till I knew it was any good. But I just took a notion to read it to you to-day. That’s all.”

It wasn’t all, but he wanted Tony to think it was. Not for anything would he have betrayed how reading the story was a desperate expedient to keep her diverted and safe from news of the disaster on the Overland.

He escorted Tony back to the campus house at the latest possible moment and Carlotta, in the secret, pretended to upbraid her roommate for her tardiness and flew about helping her to get dressed, talking continuously the while and keeping a sharp eye on the door lest some intruder burst in and say the very thing Tony Holiday must not be permitted to hear. It would be so ridiculously easy for somebody to ask, “Oh, did you hear about the awful wreck on the Overland?” and then the fat would be in the fire.

But, thanks to Carlotta, nobody had a chance to say it and later Tony Holiday, standing in the twilight in front of College Hall’s steps, sang her solo, Gounod’s beautiful Ave Maria, smiled happily down into the faces of the dear folks from her beloved Hill and only regretted that Larry was not there with the rest Larry who, for all the others knew, might never come again.

After dinner Ted rushed off again to the telegraph office which he had been haunting all the afternoon to see if any word had come from his brother, and Doctor Holiday went on up to the campus to escort his niece to the informal hop. He had decided to go on just as if nothing was wrong. If Larry was safe then there was no need of clouding Tony’s joy, and if he wasn’t well, there would be time enough to grieve when they knew. By virtue of his being a grave and reverend uncle he was admitted to the sacred precincts of his niece’s room and had hardly gotten seated when the door flew open and Ted flew in waving two yellow telegraph blanks triumphantly, one in each hand, and announcing that everything was all right Larry was all right, had wired from Pittsburgh.

Before Tony had a chance to demand what it was all about the door opened again and a righteously indignant house mother appeared on the threshold, demanding by what right an unauthorized male had gone up her stairway and entered a girl’s room, without permission or escort.

“I apologize,” beamed Ted with his most engaging smile. “Come on outside, Mrs. Maynerd and I’ll tell you all about it.” And tucking his arm in hers the irrepressible youth conveyed the angry personage out into the hall, leaving his uncle to explain the situation to Tony.

In a moment he was back triumphant.

“She says I may stay since I’m here, and Uncle Phil is here to play dragon,” he announced. “She thought at first Carlotta would have to be expunged to make it legal, but I overruled her, told her you and I had played tiddle-de-winks with each other in our cradles,” he added with an impish grin at his sister’s roommate. “Of course I never laid eyes on you till two years ago, but that doesn’t matter. I have a true tiddle-de-winks feeling for you, anyway, and that is what counts, isn’t it, sweetness?”

Carlotta laughed and averred that she was going to expunge herself anyway as Phil was waiting for her downstairs. She picked up a turquoise satin mandarin cloak from the chair and Ted sprang to put it around her bare shoulders, stooping to kiss the tip of her ear as he finished.

“Lucky Phil!” he murmured.

Carlotta shook her head at him and went over to Tony, over whom she bent for an instant with unusual feeling in her lovely eyes.

“Oh, my dear,” she whispered. “I wish I could tell you how I feel. I’m so glad so glad.” And then she was gone before Tony could answer.

“Oh me!” she sighed. “She has been so wonderful. You all have. Ted Uncle Phil! Come over here. I want to hold you tight.”

And, with her brother on one side of her and her uncle on the other, Tony gave a hand to each and for a moment no one spoke. Then Ted produced his telegrams one of which was addressed to Tony and one to her uncle. Both announced the young doctor’s safety. “Staying over in Pittsburgh. Letter follows,” was in the doctor’s message. “Sorry can’t make commencement. Love and congratulations,” was in Tony’s.

“There, didn’t I tell you he was all right?” demanded Ted, as if his brother’s safety were due to his own remarkably good management of the affair. “Gee! Tony! If you knew how I felt when Dick told me this morning. I pretty nearly disgraced myself by toppling over, just like a girl, on the campus. Lord! It was fierce.”

“I know.” Tony squeezed his hand sympathetically. “And Dick why Dick must have kept me out in Paradise on purpose.”

“Sure he did. Dick’s a jim dandy and don’t you forget it.”

“I shan’t,” said Tony, her eyes a little misty, remembering how Dick had fought all day to keep her care-free happiness intact. “I don’t know whether to be angry at you all for keeping it from me or to fall on your necks and weep because you were all so dear not to tell me. And oh! If anything had happened to Larry! I don’t see how I could have stood it. It makes us all seem awfully near, doesn’t it?”

“You bet!” agreed Ted with more fervor than elegance. “If the old chap had been done for I’d have felt like making for the river, myself. Funny, now the scare is over and he is all safe, I shall probably cuss him out as hard as ever next time he tries to preach at me.”

“You had better listen to him instead. Larry is apt to be right and you are apt to be wrong, and you know it.”

“Maybe it is because I do know it and because he is so devilish right that I damn him,” observed the youngest Holiday sagely, his eyes meeting his uncle’s over his sister’s head.

It wasn’t until he had danced and flirted and made merry for three consecutive hours at the hop, and proposed in the exuberance of his mood to at least three different charmers whose names he had forgotten by the next day, that Ted Holiday remembered Madeline and his promise to keep tryst with her that afternoon. Other things of more moment had swept her clean from his mind.

“Thunder!” he muttered to himself. “Wonder what she is thinking when I swore by all that was holy to come. Oh well; I should worry. I couldn’t help it. I’ll write and explain how it happened.”

So said, so done. He scribbled off a hasty note of explanation and apology which he signed “Yours devotedly, Ted Holiday” and went out to the corner mail box to dispatch the same so it would go out in the early morning collection, and prepared to dismiss the matter from his mind again.

Coming back into his room he found his uncle standing on the threshold.

“Had to get a letter off,” murmured the young man as his uncle looked inquiring. He turned to light a cigarette with an air of determined casualness. He didn’t care to have Uncle Phil know any more about the Madeline affair.

“It must have been important.”

“Was,” curtly. “Did you think I was joy riding again?”

“No, I heard you stirring and thought you might be sick. I haven’t been able to get to sleep myself.”

Seeing how utterly worn out his uncle looked, Ted’s resentment took quick, shamed flight. Poor Uncle Phil! He never spared himself, always bore the brunt of everything for them all. And here he himself had just snapped like a cur because he suspected his guardian of desiring to interfere with his high and mighty private business.

“Too bad,” he said. “Wish you’d smoke, Uncle Phil. It’s great to cool off your nerves. Honest it is! Have one?” He held out his case.

Doctor Holiday smiled at that, though he declined the proffered weed. He understood very well that the boy was making tacit amends for his ungraciousness of a moment before.

“No, I’ll get to sleep presently. It has been rather a wearing day.”

“Should say it had been. I hope Aunt Margery doesn’t know about the wreck. She’ll worry, if she knew Larry was coming east.”

“I wired her this evening. I didn’t want to take any chance of her thinking he was in the smash.”

Ted laid down his cigarette.

“You never forget anybody do you, Uncle Phil?” he said rather soberly for him.

“I never forget Margery. She is a very part of myself, lad.”

And when he was alone Ted pondered over that last speech of his uncle’s. He wondered if there would ever be a Margery for him, and, if so, what she would think of the Madelines if she knew of them.