Gloria Gilbert

“ With suddenly quickened breath he walked to the telephone. When he gave the number it seemed to him that his voice faltered and broke like a schoolboy's. The Central must have heard the pounding of his heart. The sound of the receiver being taken up at the other end was a crack of doom, and Mrs. Gilbert's voice, soft as maple syrup running into a glass container, had for him a quality of horror in its single "Hello-o-ah?"
"Miss Gloria's not feeling well. She's lying down, asleep. Who shall I say called?" ”

“ She did remember, however, that deluded persons were often quite wonderful in their powers for deluding others.
“Mr. Gilbert, he’s one human lawyer. A young fellow too, very handsome, a friend of Miss Alton’s. He made all arrangements for Jack here,” explained Mrs. Corday, “and he has seen the necklace with the clue stone in it, for Philip, that’s Mr. Corday, told me he, Mr. Gilbert, had all the particulars. But how could it get to Altmount?”
“Jack never saw this, so far as I know,” Gloria said reflectively. ”

“ Gilbert knew it had gone as far as a private engagement—with Tudor Baird and that Holcome boy at Pasadena. She was sure it had, because—this must go no further—she had come in unexpectedly and found Gloria acting, well, very much engaged indeed. She had not spoken to her daughter, of course. She had had a certain sense of delicacy and, besides, each time she had expected an announcement in a few weeks. But the announcement never came; instead, a new man came.
Scenes! Young men walking up and down the library like caged tigers! ”

“ Anthony had actually completed a Chestertonian essay on the twelfth century by way of introduction to his proposed book and Gloria had done some extensive research work on the question of Russian sable coats—in fact the winter was approaching quite comfortably, when the Bilphistic demiurge decided suddenly in mid-December that Mrs. Gilbert's soul had aged sufficiently in its present incarnation. In consequence Anthony took a miserable and hysterical Gloria out to Kansas City, where, in the fashion of mankind, they paid the terrible and mind-shaking deference to the dead. ”

“ She sensed mystery, she hoped for a real lark, somehow all the restraint of Altmount seemed mere atmosphere in the secret contemplation of that one, fearless girl, with that handsome young man and the “Steppy,” possibly with all the fairy tale attributes of horrid gray hair, a witch’s face, a crone’s raspy voice and everything! How perfectly delicious! A story fit for any one, even the insatiable Pat. So it was that all day, in spite of the extra drill preparing for tests, Gloria involuntarily made pictures of Jacquinot Corday, the girl bareback rider, champion circus performer, etc. ”

“ Corday for its press manager.
“I had charge of all the wardrobes!” she said proudly, “and I had five other women under me in the women’s tent. Such robes! Such costumes and such perfectly magnificent trappings! Why, we had one little woman, her name was Yvette Duval and she rode our whitest Arab steed. Her trappings were really studded with stones, gems190 given to her by great foreign potentates that we had performed for.”
“Did Jack have any of those things with her at school? I mean at Altmount?” asked Gloria frankly. She was too surprised to be tactful.
“Jack have circus things with her! ”

“ Miss Taylor was not much more than a school girl herself.
“The berries!” cheered Pat. “Come along,91 Glo, and continue the hunt. If Jack is in Altmount we’ll find her! Let exams take care of themselves for a while,” and she dragged the willing Gloria along, out through the heavy doors, down the deserted path making straight for the gym.
“If she’s around she’ll surely be walking a ceiling or resting up on double flips. She’s the queerest girl. Hard work is her idea of loafing.”
All this increased Gloria’s suspicion. It sounded too much like circus ability to be anything else. ”

“ You went on Mona’s wheel and you took all your money, and I thought—”
“That I had run away! Oh, Auntie! Of course I didn’t. I wasn’t unhappy here, and you have been good and kind to me—”
“After cheating you! After sending Hazel in your place! After stealing Lottie’s money!”
“Hush, Auntie, don’t!” begged Gloria, feeling the hand of Martha Drake urging her to leave the room. “You are only excited and worked up. I know you did nothing wrong, and you must not blame yourself so—”
A grateful look came over the face of Harriet Towers. “You have taught me, you with your quiet, determined spirit. ”

“ She and Tom were leaving the village behind them and wending their way homeward.
“I tell you, Tom,” mused Gloria. “I guess poor old Nancy felt sorry for being so—so hasty. You can’t always judge folks, can you?”
“No. Ma said she’d rather have that potted slip all ready for the winter, you know, than most anything else.”
“So, see what your wheel spill did after all.” Gloria laughed lightly—rather too lightly for Gloria. “That geranium’s what they call a conscience gift, I guess,” she continued. “You know how Walter Garrabrant sent a dollar to the trolley company last year?” ”

“ She has a motive if she is sensible. But, mother, I have got to run along, or we will be put on probation if we over stay, and there is no telling what may delay us. We had to stop to get air in the car coming out.”
Gloria was now so far back in the closet that she could hardly breathe, but the door had sprung open a crack so she heard distinctly what the mother and daughter were saying.
“Where’s my tweed coat? I’ve got to take that. It’s quite cold evenings—”
She was coming to the closet! Gloria dared not stir! ”

“ He cursed himself for a fool, shut the hand into a hard fist as steady as rock, and for an instant glared at it blackly. Then he opened the fingers slowly; a hard smile made his mouth ugly and left it cruel; the fingers had hearkened to a superb will, and gave no greater hint of trembling than did the nigged hole of the giant cedar under which he stood.
He coiled his horse's tie-rope and led him back to camp. As he drew near, Gloria promptly turned her back and studied her nails; she had had encounters with men before now and had not yet gauged the profundity of this man's emotion. ”

“ But no Jack was found in the gym, either walking ceilings, or doing double flips.
“Well, perhaps she is in some corner of the Wigwam, safe in the arms of the babes,” suggested Pat, rather disconsolately. “Let’s give up the hunt and go along the lake drive for a change. I really must work hard to make up some points, and perhaps a real lively walk will tune me up.”
“I need one myself,” agreed Gloria. “How is this pace?”
“Suits me. You do take lovely long steps for such a little girl.”
92 “I’m not little. I expect to be tall and imposing like Trix, some day,” announced Gloria. ”

“ That was so like her father. She couldn’t help liking a man with those frank, fearless ways and that quick, swift understanding.
“All the same, Uncle Charley, please listen.” They were out by the back hedge. It was new, like all things on Maple Street, and Gloria felt sorry for it. “You see I’m awfully interested in those Gorman children,” ventured Gloria.
“Yes? And you have rather a practical way of showing it. You turned the trick when you got that poor woman off to the hospital. Even I, a full grown man, hadn’t managed that. ”

“ Her pronounced opinions are always easier to accept than to combat, and just now she was “making up” something quite “clicquey.”
“The deceitful thing,” murmured Pat, when girl after girl slipped away from the pine needle carpet to follow Jean’s unspoken suggestion. “And she ate more of our pop-corn than any other three eaters added up.”
“Was she a great friend of Hazel’s?” asked Gloria. Her dark eyes were glinting under rather fluttering lids, and a “set expression,” as good old Jane would have described it, seemed to have suddenly burned out Gloria’s happiness fuse. ”

“ Doane’s manner in a sort of aloofness until now. “I know a goat can swim—”
“But not so far,” interrupted Mr. Doane.
“Oh, well, maybe,” acceded Tom. “But anyway, we don’t have to take her in the launch—”
“I should say not!” cried out Gloria, while the other girls gathered in their scant skirts apprehensively.
“’Course you don’t have to take her in the launch,” echoed George Alton, who was the best “echoer” in the party, but never seemed able to send out an original suggestion.
“She could float,” lisped Neddie, trying to take care of his own sandwich, while he ate the one Ranny gave him. ”

“ Still, dominated subconsciously by the thought which had brought her to the telephone, Gloria managed before the connection was broken to beg her mother to come immediately to her at the log house; to tell every one that Gloria was with her father. Her mother promised; began asking questions, and Gloria said a bleak "good-bye" and hung up.
The newspapers. She sat there staring into space and seeing the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner, hawked by newsboys, on stands, thrust under doors, going like spreading snowflakes of a big storm into post-offices, to racing trains, all over the land. ”

“ But I’ve got to tell you some things, Gloria. I just can’t have my stepmother come here,” began Jack with a brave effort. “She’s all right, and as good as gold, when she isn’t crossed; but these girls——”
“I know. I’ve felt the sting a little myself,” admitted Gloria. “You see, I’m an out and out country girl, and green.”
“So was Joan of Arc, and a beauty at that,” broke in the sick girl. “Now, I’m willing to own up to a fraud, I do pretend a lot just for the fun of ‘stringing’ Jean and her crowd. They’re such sillies.” ”

“ An absolutely new sense of elation sang through Gloria's blood. She was fully mistress of the situation, and had found within her an unguessed strength. Physically superb at all times because nature had richly gifted her, now she was magnificent.
"Mr. Gratton," she said swiftly, "you have made a mistake. Mr. King has never offered me violence of that sort. Remember that, though we are alone, and in the mountains, I am the same Gloria Gaynor that you have known. ”

“ This argument was unanswerable, and Nancy opened the bag with the trick catch. She fumbled through a miscellaneous collection of articles and then looked up sharply.
“But just let me have a look,” asked Gloria.
Reluctantly the bag was handed over. Gloria simply dumped the articles out into an empty berry basket, and with the refuse out of the way proceeded to look into the corners of the old hand Satchel.
“You don’t need to look—” interrupted the impatient woman. But Gloria kept right on looking. ”

“ He'd give a thousand dollars right now to be well rid of her; yes, and have Gratton and Brodie and the rest of them come on looking for any sort of a row that suited their ilk. He told himself that with savage emphasis, but he asked: could he let her go?
"Before I go," said Gloria when she thought that he had nothing further to add, "I want to say just one thing: father has always considered you his best friend. I shall lose no time in telling him what you really are."
Gloria's remark, coming just when it did in King's perplexity, settled his decision firmly on him. ”

“ Gloria felt more and more keenly now that she would positively have to fight this irritating suspicion.
“Anything but disgrace,” she found herself reflecting over and over again. She recalled how she had pitied folks who could not pay their bills, and how she had at one time coaxed Jane to lend the Stanleys ten dollars to satisfy a very urgent claim being pressed by Tommy’s store.
She felt like a culprit all the afternoon, and decided she would in some way have to put a carefully framed question to her Aunt Hattie that very evening. ”

“ But it was finally accomplished, and when the last knot was tied as gently as Tom could tie it, and the little animal lay helpless, her full faun-colored length upon the rough woods’ timber, Gloria said it reminded her of the Bible pictures of Abraham’s sacrifice.
“All aboard!” called out Mr. Doane. “I’ve promised to get you youngsters home before supper time, and just look at that sun!”
“Couldn’t I get a couple more white stones?” begged Neddie.
“You’ve got plenty of stones,” scoffed his brother Jerry. “And what won’t mother do to you for stuffin’ them in that good blouse?” ”

“ There had been unexpected delays about the settlement, but these Gloria condoned with the assurance to her father that with Aunt Harriet and Hazel everything would be all right, and so she insisted he was to finish up all his business and leave the details of hers to those just mentioned.
The few passengers on the jerky trolley were taking their leave of each other as the trip to Sandford lengthened, but Gloria had to ride to the Green, then transfer to Oakley. ”

“ Sure you are going to like it all?”
“Why, Daddy Doane—”
“Because I’ve left it all to you and faithful Jane and your Aunt Hattie,” he continued. “I know they’ll take care of you, for there’s their own girl only two years older. But you see, girlie, you and I have been such cast iron pals.” They were now both sitting on a log—the apple tree cut down last year—and about them the twilight etched pictures in shadowy outlines. Gloria clung to her father with pathetic tenderness, yet, when he said he must go earlier a look of relief seemed to flash across her serious young face. ”

“ Gloria asked. They were on the second landing and now safe from possible interruptions.
“The Steppy, you know. She surely is a queer one. You just ought to hear her pass remarks, about one o’clock A. M. in the lower hall with the mezzanine floor lined with listening ladies! What the girls don’t guess isn’t worth considering. Guessing is their one strong line. But I like Jack, you know, Gloria, and I’m not catty enough to join in the slaughter.”
“I can’t see why girls are so—so snobbish,” returned Gloria. ”