When Miss Preston came to her room an hour later she found the tray quite empty, and Toinette fast asleep. Arranging the couch pillows more comfortably, and throwing a warm puff over the sleeping girl, she whispered, softly: "Poor little maid, your battle with Apollyon was short and sharp, but, thank G.o.d, you've conquered, even at the expense of an exhausted mind and weary body."

It was nearly midnight when Toinette opened her eyes to see Miss Preston warmly wrapped in her dressing-gown, and seated before the fire reading.

The lamp was carefully screened from Toinette, who could not at first realize what had happened, or why she was there, but Miss Preston's voice recalled her to herself.

"Do you feel rested, dear?" she asked. "Don't try to go to your room; just undress and cuddle down in my bed with me to-night; I've brought in your night-dress."

Toinette did not answer, but, walking over to Miss Preston, just rested her cheek against hers for a moment. Twenty minutes later she was fast asleep in her good friend's bed.

The following day all was bustle and excitement at Sunny Bank, for great preparations were being made for the dance in the evening, and understanding how much pleasure it gave the girls to feel that they were of some a.s.sistance, she let them fly about like so many grigs, helping or hindering, as it happened.

They brought down all the pretty trifles from their rooms, piled up sofa pillows till the couches resembled a Turk's palace; arranged the flowers, and rearranged them, till poor Miss Preston began to fear that there would be nothing left of them. However, it was an exceedingly attractive house which was thrown open to her guests at eight o'clock that evening, and the girls had had no small share in making it so.

A very complete understanding seemed to exist between Toinette and Miss Preston now, for, although no words were spoken, none were needed; just an exchange of glances told that two hearts were very happy that night, for love and confidence had come to dwell within them.

CHAPTER XX

"NOW TREAD WE A MEASURE."

Shall we ever grow too old to recall the pleasure of our school dances?

Then lights seem brighter, toilets more ravishing, music sweeter, our partners more fascinating, and the supper more tempting than ever before or after.

The house was brilliantly lighted from top to bottom, excepting in such cosy corners as were specially conducive to confidential chats, and in these softly shaded lamps cast a fairy-like light.

Miss Preston, dressed in black velvet, with some rich old lace to enhance its charms, received her guests in the great hall, some of the older girls receiving with her.

There were ten or more girls who were taking special courses, and these were styled "parlor boarders," and at the end of the school term would enter society. Consequently, this dance was looked upon as a preliminary step for the one to follow, and the girls regarded it as a sort of "golden mile-stone" in their lives, which marked off the point at which "the brook and river meet."

A prettier, happier lot of girls could hardly have been found, and none looked lovelier, or happier, than Toinette. Her dress, a soft, creamy white chiffon, admirably suited to her golden coloring, had been sent to her by her father, whose taste was unerring. No matter how many miles of this big globe divided them, he never forgot her needs, and, if unable to supply them himself, took good care that some one else should do so. So the dress had arrived the night before, and Miss Preston had been able to give her another pleasant surprise for the dance. And now she looked as the lilies of the field for fairness.

She was whirling away upon her partner's arm, when, chancing to glance toward the door, she beheld something which brought her to an abrupt stand-still, much to her partner's amazement. Miss Preston stood in the doorway, and, standing beside her, with one hand resting lightly upon his hip and the other raised a little above his head, and resting against the door-casing, stood a tall, remarkably handsome man. His att.i.tude was unstudied, but brought out to perfection the fine lines of his figure.

Hastily exclaiming: "Oh, please, excuse me, or else come with me,"

Toinette glided between the whirling figures, and, forgetful of all else, cried out in a joyous voice: "Papa, papa Clayton, where _did_ you come from?"

It was so like the childish voice he had loved to hear so long ago, that he started with pleasure.

During the brief holiday Toinette had spent with him he had missed the spontaneity he had known in the little child, and, without being able to a.n.a.lyze it, felt that something was wanting in the girl. She had been sweet and winning, yet under it all had been a manner quite incomprehensible to him, as though she did not feel quite sure of her position in his affections. Her laugh had lacked the true girlish ring, and her conversation with him seemed guarded, as though she had never quite spoken all her thoughts.

He had been immeasurably distressed by it, for he could not understand the cause, and bitterly reproached himself for not being better acquainted with his own child. In the merry girl who now stood before him, her eyes shining, her cheeks flushed with excitement, her voice so joyous, he saw no trace of the listless one he had placed in Miss Preston's charge two months before.

Slipping one arm about her, he snuggled her close to his side, as he answered:

"A blue-coated biped left a good, substantial hint at my office not long since, and this is what came of following it."

"_You_ did it! I'm sure of it," laughed Toinette, shaking her finger at Miss Preston, as the latter said: "I leave you to a livelier entertainer, now, Mr. Reeve, while I go to look after some of my guests who may not be so fortunately situated," and she slipped away, Toinette calling after her: "You are responsible for most of the nice things which happen here.

Oh, daddy," dropping unconsciously into the old childish pet name, "I've such stacks of things to tell you. But, excuse me just one second, while I find a partner for that boy I've left stranded high and dry over there; doesn't he look miserable? Then I'll come back," and, kissing her hand gaily, she ran off. Returning a moment or two later, she said:

"There! he's all fixed, and is sure to have a good time with Ethel and Lou; they're not a team, but a four-in-hand. Now, come and have a dance with me, and then we'll go off all by ourselves and have the cosiest time you ever dreamed of. I feel so proud to have you all to myself," she added, as they glided away to the soft strains of the music, "so sort of grown-up and grand with such a handsome partner."

"Hear! hear! Do you want to make me vain? I haven't been accustomed to hearing such barefaced compliments. They make me blush."

"I really believe they _do_," answered Toinette, throwing back her head to get a better look at him, and laughing softly when she saw a slight flush upon his face. "Never mind, it is all in the family, you know."

"Perhaps I have other reasons for feeling a trifle elated," he said, as the dance came to an end and he followed Toinette to one of the cozy corners. Springing up among the cushions, she patted them invitingly, and said:

"Come, sit down here beside me, and let me tell you all about the loveliest time of my life. Oh, daddy, I _do_ so love to be here, and you don't know how good Miss Preston is to me. She is good to us all, but, somehow the other girls don't seem to need so much setting straight as _I_ have. I think I must have been all kinked up in little hard knots before I came here, and Miss Preston has begun to untie them. She hasn't got all untied yet, but I feel so sort of loosened up and easy that everything seems lots more comfortable."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "I FEEL SO SORT OF GROWN UP AND GRAND."]

Clayton Reeve did not smile at Toinette's odd way of explaining her feelings. He knew it to be a fourteen-year-old girl who spoke, and that her thoughts, to be natural, must be put into her own words.

On she rambled, telling one thing after another, and, while they were talking, Helen Burgess stopped near their snuggery. It was too dimly lighted for her to discover them, and the next thing they knew they were unwitting eavesdroppers, for Helen was talking very earnestly to one of her boon companions, a day-pupil at the school, and one of the brightest in it, but, like Helen, not embarra.s.sed with riches. For some time the girls had been saving their small allowances toward the purchase of cameras, but so slowly did the sums acc.u.mulate that it was rather discouraging for them. They were now talking about their respective ways of procuring the sums of money needed, and the trifle they had managed to save, and the small amounts they earned in one way or another, to augment the original sums, seemed so paltry to Toinette, who never stopped to ask whence came the five-dollar bills so regularly sent her each week, and who, had a fancy entered her head for one, would have walked out and bought a camera very much as she would have bought a paper of pins.

CHAPTER XXI

CONSPIRATORS

Mr. Reeve would have risen from his snug corner and discovered himself to the girls, but Toinette laid her finger upon her lips to enjoin silence, and, although he could not quite understand her desire to play eavesdropper, he complied. From the subject of the cameras the girls went on to Helen's work in the art cla.s.s, for Jean was much interested in that also, and they often built air-castles about the wonderful things they would do when that fabulous "stone ship" should sail safely into port.

They talked earnestly for girls of thirteen and fifteen, and Mr. Reeve could not fail to be impressed by the strength of purpose they seemed to possess, and, having a good bit of stick-to-ativeness himself, admired it in others. Moreover, he had been forced to make his own way in life when young, and could sympathize with other aspiring souls.

Presently the two girls moved away, and then Toinette whispered: "I don't know what you think of me for making you play 'Paul Pry,' but I had a reason for it, and now I'll tell you what it was."

"I inferred as much, so kept mum."

"Well, you see, since I've been here I've waked up a little, and, somehow, have begun to think about other people, and wonder if they were happy. At Miss Carter's school everybody just seemed to think about themselves, or, if they thought of anybody else, it was generally to wonder how they could get ahead of them in some way. But here it is all so different, and everybody seems to try to find out what they can do to make someone else happy. I can't begin to tell you how it is done, because I don't know myself; only it _is_, and it makes you feel sort of happy all over," said Toinette, trying to put into words that subtle something which makes us feel at peace with all mankind, and little realizing that its cause lay right within herself; for a sense of having done one's very best and a clear conscience are wonderful rosy spectacles through which to see life.

"Go on, I'm keenly interested, and these little confidences are very delightful," said her father, with an encouraging nod and smile.

"So I began to want to do little things, too, and, do you know, daddy, you'd be really surprised if you knew what a lot of ways there are of making the girls happy if you only take the trouble to look for them. For instance, there is Helen Burgess, the larger of the girls you saw just now: we have become real good friends, and she is very clever, and draws beautifully. But she has so little to do with that she can't afford to get the things the other girls have to work with, nor have the advantages they have. She and Jean have been trying ever so long to get cameras, for they think that they could take pretty views of Montcliff and sell them to the people who come here in the summer, and I'm sure they could, too. It does not make so much difference to Jean, for, although she isn't rich, she isn't exactly poor, either, you know, and has a good many nice things, but Helen never seems to have any. So I thought I'd have a little talk with you and get you to send out a cute little camera for each of them and never let them know where they came from. Wouldn't that be great fun? But I want to pay for them. You can use ten dollars of my money, and not send me my allowance for two weeks; I've got enough to last."

"And what will my poverty-stricken la.s.sie do meantime?" asked Mr. Reeve.

"Oh, she is not so poverty-stricken as you think," laughed Toinette. "She won't suffer. And then I wanted to ask you if there wasn't some way of helping Helen in her art work. She wants so much to go abroad with Miss Preston, but has no more idea of ever being able to do so than she has of going to the moon. What would it cost, papa? Isn't there some way of bringing it about? Couldn't you have a talk with Miss Preston and find out all about it, and then we could plan something, maybe."

Toinette had become very earnest as she talked, and was now leaning toward her father, her hands clasped in her lap, and her expressive face alive with enthusiasm.

Mr. Reeve hated to spoil the pretty picture, but said, in the interested tone so comforting when used by older people in speaking to young folk: "I am sure we can evolve some plan. I shall be very glad to speak to Miss Preston before I return to the city, and haven't the slightest doubt that great things will come of it."

"How lovely! You're just a darling! I'm going to hug you right here behind the curtains!" cried Toinette, as she sprung up and clasped her arms about his neck.

"Haven't you one or two more favors you'd like to ask?" said Mr. Reeve, suggestively.