"Ralph saved my life," interrupted Darsie simply.

Dan looked at her sharply, stared with scrutinising attention at her face, but spoke no further word of protest. He evidently realised, as Darsie did herself, that it would be a mean act to reject the friendship of a man who had wrought so great a service.

Half an hour later the two girls slowly wended their way past the tower gateway of Trinity, past Caius, with its twinkling lights, stately King's, and modest Catherine's, to the homelike shelter of their own dear Newnham.

"Well!" cried Hannah, breaking a long silence, "you had a big success and I had--_not_! But you're not a bit happier than I, that I can see.

Men are poor, blind bats. I prefer my own s.e.x; they are much more discriminating, and when they like you--they _like_ you, and there's no more shilly-shally. Those men never know their own minds!"

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

MRS. REEVES MAKES A PROPOSAL.

Four days later Darsie went by appointment to her _tete-a-tete_ tea with the professional chaperon with a pleasurable expectation which was largely streaked with curiosity.

If physiognomy counted for anything, Mrs Reeves must surely be a most sweet and n.o.ble character. Her grey eyes looked into yours with a straight, transparent gaze, her lips closed one upon another firmly enough to debar all trace of weakness, yet not so firmly as to hint at undue severity, her hair waved back from a broad white brow. It was, as Dan had said, difficult to understand how such a woman could be the willing companion of men whom even fellow-students were anxious to shun.

Darsie wondered if the afternoon's conversation would throw any light on this knotty point.

She was shown, not into the drawing-room but into a cosy little den on the second floor, a sort of glorious edition of a college study, where Mrs Reeves sat reading by the fire, clad in a loose velvet gown of a curious reddish-brown, like the autumn tint of a leaf, which matched the high lights of her chestnut hair. Darsie watched her with fascinated attention as she presided over the tea-table, with lithe, graceful movements which made a poem out of the every-day proceeding, and Mrs Reeves studied her in return, as she chatted lightly about a dozen casual subjects. Then the tea-things were carried away, and with the drawing nearer to the fire conversation took a more intimate turn.

"I hope your friend did not think me inhospitable for not including her in my invitation to-day, but when I want to get to know a girl I prefer to have her entirely to myself. Perhaps she will come another day.

Vernon's sister ought to be worth knowing."

"You know Dan?" Darsie's smile was somewhat anxious, for Dan's own manner with respect to her hostess was still a disturbing element. "You know him well?"

"No," Mrs Reeves smiled; "not well. But I like him well by repute!

Vernon has no need of my services. He is strong: enough to stand by himself."

"You mean tea-parties?" queried Darsie vaguely, whereat Mrs Reeves subsided into a ripple of laughter.

"No, I do _not_ mean tea-parties--something very much wider. I don't fancy, however, that Vernon is sociably disposed, and the authorities here are not inclined to encourage meetings between the men and girl students. The head of his college is my brother-in-law, and one of your Dons is a very old friend, so I hear the question discussed from both sides, and then--like a wise woman--I gang my own gait! So long as men are men, and girls are girls, they are bound to attract each other; it's natural and right, and when they are bound to meet in any case, it is my little hobby to help them to do so under the best conditions. I flatter myself I am quite an expert in the art of being just chaperon enough, and not too chaperon, and I never refuse to act if I can possibly contrive to do so."

"No! Dan said--" began Darsie involuntarily, and then stopped short with a furious blush. Mrs Reeves, however, did not share her discomfiture; she laughed, and said shrewdly--

"Oh, I have observed his disapproving eye. I can guess what he said.

Many people feel the same, who judge only from the surface, and don't take the trouble to realise my motives. One doesn't explain such things to the world in general, but I want _you_ to understand. If one man less admirable than another; if his friends and his entertainments are inclined to become rowdy and discreditable, does he need help _less_, or more? Vernon and other men of his kind consider that they do their duty by leaving such a man severely alone. I find mine in being with him-- just--as much--as ever I can!" She emphasised the words by a series of taps with the poker on the top of an obstinate coal, given in the most delightfully school-girlish manner. "I chaperon his parties; I talk to him and his friends; I make myself so agreeable that they love to have me, and want to have me again. I try with every power I possess to encourage all that is good, and kind, and honest, and cheering in themselves and their conversation, and deftly, delicately, invisibly, as it were, to fight against everything that is mean and unworthy. It's difficult, Darsie!--I may call you Darsie, mayn't I? it's such a beguiling little name!--one of the most difficult feats a woman could set herself to accomplish, and though I've had a fair measure of success, it's only a measure. It's such a great big work. Think of all that it means, that it _may_ mean to England, if we can keep these men from drifting, and give them a pull-up in time! I am constantly looking, looking out for fellow-workers. That's why I invited you here to-day--to ask _you_ to be on my side!"

"I!" Darsie's gasp of amazement sounded throughout the room. "I! Oh, you can't mean it! What could I do? I can do nothing--I'm only a girl!"

"Only a girl! But, dear child, that's your finest qualification! You can do more than I can ever accomplish, just because you _are_ a girl, and will be admitted to an intimacy which is impossible for me.

Besides, Darsie, you are a particularly pretty and attractive girl into the bargain; you know that, don't you? You _ought_ to know it, and be very, very thankful for a great weapon given into your hands. If you will join the ranks with me, and act as my curate, you will immensely increase my power for good."

"But I can't! I can't! I'd love to if I could, but you don't know how impossible it is. I couldn't preach to save my life."

"I'm thankful to hear it. I don't want you to preach. You'd soon lose your influence if you did. It's a case of _being_, Darsie, rather than doing; being your truest, sweetest, highest self when you are with these men, so that they may feel your influence through all the fun and banter. Lots of fun, please; you can't have too much of that; a dull girl is soon left to herself. People in general don't half realise the influence of just right _thinking_--the atmosphere which surrounds a person who is mentally fighting for good. The sunbeams fall on the dark earth and soak up the poisoned waters, and so may our thoughts--our prayers," She was silent for a few moments, her hand resting lightly on Darsie's knees. "There is a girl in your house--Margaret France--I expect you know her! She has been one of my best helpers these last years. Wherever Margaret is there is fun and laughter; she is just brimful of it, but--can you imagine any one going to Margaret with an unworthy thought, an unworthy cause? I want you to follow in her steps!"

She paused again for a long minute, then said slowly and emphatically--

"Ralph Percival needs help, Darsie! He has not fallen very low as yet, but he is drifting. He is in a bad set, and, like too many of our richer men, he lacks purpose. They come up here because their fathers have been before them, and it is the correct thing to do. There is no real reason why they should work, or take a high place, but there seems to themselves every reason why they should have a good time. Parents sometimes seem to hold more or less the same opinion; at others they seem distressed, but powerless. College authorities are regarded as natural enemies; religious influences for the time beat on closed doors; now, Darsie, here comes the chance for 'only a girl!' A man like Ralph Percival, at this stage of his life, will be more influenced by a girl like you than by any power on earth. It's a law of Nature and of G.o.d, and if every girl realised it, it would be a blessed thing for the race.

I once heard a preacher say that so long as one dealt with general principles, and talked broadly of the human race, there was very little done. We have to fine it down to _my next door neighbour_ before we really set to work. Fine down what I have said to Ralph Percival, Darsie, and help me with him! He's drifting. He needs you. Help me to pull him back!"

Darsie nodded dumbly. Mrs Reeves thought the expression on her downcast face touchingly sweet and earnest, but even she missed the clue to the girl's inmost thought.

Years ago she herself had been drifting, drifting towards death, and Ralph had stepped forward to save her; now, in an allegorical sense, the positions were reversed, and she was summoned to the rescue. There was no refusing a duty so obvious. Heavy and onerous as the responsibility might be, it had been placed in her hands. Darsie braced herself to the burden.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

CHRISTMAS DAY.

It was Christmas Day; fifteen eventful months had pa.s.sed by since Darsie Garnett and Hannah Vernon had made their appearance in Clough in the character of modest and diffident Freshers. Now, advanced to the dignity of second-year girls, they patronised new-comers with the best, and talked, thought, and behaved as though, deprived of their valuable support, the historical centre of Cambridge must swiftly crumble to the dust.

The little air of a.s.surance and self-esteem which seems inseparable from a feminine student had laid its hand on Darsie's beauty, robbing it of the old shy grace, and on each fresh return to the old home Clemence and Lavender eloquently described themselves as "squelched flat" by the dignified young woman who sailed about with her head in the air, and delivered an ultimatum on every subject as it arose, with an air of "My opinion is final. Let no dog bark!"

These mannerisms, however, were only, after all, a veneer; and when two or three days of merry, rollicking family life had pa.s.sed by, the old Darsie made her appearance once more, forgot to be learned and superior, forbore to refer to college and college ways in every second or third sentence, and showed a reviving interest in family affairs.

Clemence was fatter than ever, a subject of intense mortification to herself, though at each fresh meeting she confided in whispered asides that she had "lost five pounds--ten pounds," as the case might be. No one believed in these diminutions, but if one happened to be amiably disposed, one murmured vaguely, and affected conviction; and if one were not, one openly jeered and scoffed! Lavender was sentimental and wrote poetry in which "pale roses died, in the garden wide, and the wind blew drear, o'er the stricken mere." She had advanced to the dignity of long skirts, and dressed her hair--badly!--in the latest eccentricity of fashion.

Vie Vernon, on the contrary, had developed into a most elegant person, quite an accomplished woman of the world, darkly suspected of "going to be engaged" to a young lawyer with a dark moustache, who had lately developed a suspicious fondness for her father's company.

It really gave one quite a shock to realise _how_ grown-up the old companions had become even the brothers Harry and Russell were transformed into tall striplings who bought newspapers on their own account, and preferred, actually _preferred_, to be clean rather than dirty! It was a positive relief to listen to Tim's loud voice, look at his grimy paws, and reflect that one member of the family was still in the enjoyment of youth.

As usual, the postman's arrival was the first excitement of Christmas morning. He brought with him an armful of letters and parcels, and Darsie was quick to spy Ralph Percival's handwriting upon one of the smallest and most attractive-looking of the packets.

The colour came into her cheeks as she looked, but after holding the parcel uncertainly for a moment, she laid it down again, and proceeded to open other letters and boxes, leaving this particular one to the last. An onlooker would have been puzzled to decide whether it was more dread or expectation which prompted this decision; and perhaps Darsie herself could hardly have answered the question. The table was soon spread with envelopes and wrappings of paper which had enclosed souvenirs from college friends, and the more costly offerings from Mrs Percival and her girls, inscribed with the orthodox words of greeting.

Darsie ranged them in order, and then, still hesitating, turned to the last packet of all.

Inside was a note folded so as to act as additional wrapper for a small white box. Ralph's writing, large and well-formed like himself, filled the half-sheet.

"Dear Darsie,--I hope you will accept the enclosed trifle which has been made for you, from my own design. You will understand its meaning! I am more than ever in need of pulling up! Don't fail a fellow, Darsie!

"Yours,--

"Ralph B. Percival."

Inside the box lay a small but beautifully modelled anchor brooch, with a fine golden rope twined round the stock. Darsie looked at it with the same mingling of joy and pain which seemed inseparable from each stage of her friendship with this attractive but irresponsible young man.

It was just like Ralph to have thought of this pretty and graceful way of expressing his sentiments, and it was not in girl nature to resist a glow of gratified vanity; but as she turned the golden anchor in her hands and realised the significance of the symbol, an old impatience stirred in Darsie's heart. A man who trusted to another for anchorage in life, and who was ever in danger of breaking loose and drifting on to the rocks, was not the strong knight of a young girl's dreams. There were moments when the protecting tenderness which had prompted the last year's efforts gave place to sudden intolerance and resentment.

Inspired by Mrs Reeves's words in her first term at college, Darsie had set gallantly to the task of influencing Ralph Percival for good, and preventing his further deterioration. At first it had appeared a forlorn hope; and she would have despaired many a time if it had not been for the encouragement which she received from Mrs Reeves and her "curate," Margaret France. Then gradually and surely her influence had begun to make itself felt. It could not truthfully be said that she had so inspired Ralph that he had turned over a new leaf, and abandoned bad practices from a desire for the right itself. If the truth must be told, desire for his pretty mentor's approbation and praise had been a far stronger factor in the improvement which seemed to have been effected.

Ralph was emotional, and as his interest in Darsie deepened into the sentimental attachment which seemed a natural development of their intimacy, he grew increasingly anxious to stand well in her estimation.

During the May term there had been teas in the college gardens, breakfast parties at the Orchard, picnics on the river, which had afforded opportunities of _tete-a-tete_ conversations when, amidst the flowers and the sunshine, it had been quite an agreeable sensation to lament over one's weaknesses and shortcomings, and to receive in return the wisest of counsels from Darsie's pretty lips.

"To please _you_, Darsie!--I'm hanged if I care what other people think, but if _you_ ask me--" The promises gained were all couched in this personal vein. "If you chuck me, Darsie, I shan't worry any more."

This was the threat held out for the future. Unsatisfactory, if you will, yet the fact remained that for the first part of the last term Ralph _had_ appeared to show greater interest in work than he had before manifested, and had been involved in a minimum of sc.r.a.pes.