Mary Louise | Page 9

her years. She was a very clever teacher and a very incompetent
business woman, so that her small school, of excellent standing and
repute, proved difficult to finance. In character Miss Stearne was
temperamental enough to have been a genius. She was kindly natured,
fond of young girls and cared for her pupils with motherly instincts
seldom possessed by those in similar positions. She was lax in many
respects, severely strict in others. Not always were her rules and
regulations dictated by good judgment. Therefore her girls usually
found as much fault as other boarding school girls are prone to do, and
with somewhat more reason. On the other hand, no one could question
the principal's erudition or her skill in imparting her knowledge to
others.
"Sit down, Mary Louise," she said to the girl. "This is an astonishing
change in your life, is it not? Colonel Weatherby came to me last
evening and said he had been suddenly called away on important
matters that would brook no delay, and that your mother was to
accompany him on the journey. He begged me to take you in as a
regular boarder and of course I consented. You have been one of my
most tractable and conscientious pupils and I have been proud of your
progress. But the school is quite full, as you know; so at first I was
uncertain that I could accommodate you here; but Miss Dandler, my
assistant, has given up her room to you and I shall put a bed for her in
my own sleeping chamber, so that difficulty is now happily arranged. I
suppose your family left Beverly this morning, by the early train?"
"They have gone," replied Mary Louise, non-committally.
"You will be lonely for a time, of course, but presently you will feel
quite at home in the school because you know all of my girls so well. It
is not like a strange girl coming into a new school. And remember,
Mary Louise, that you are to come to me for any advice and assistance
you need, for I promised your grandfather that I would fill your
mother's place as far as I am able to do so."
Mary Louise reflected, with a little shock of pain, that her mother had
never been very near to her and that Miss Stearne might well perform

such perfunctory duties as the girl had been accustomed to expect. But
no one could ever take the place of Gran'pa Jim.
"Thank you, Miss Stearne," she said. "I am sure I shall be quite
contented here. Is my room ready?"
"Yes; and your trunk has already been placed in it. Let me know, my
dear, if there is anything you need."
Mary Louise went to her room and was promptly pounced upon by
Dorothy Knerr and Sue Finley, who roomed just across the hall from
her and were delighted to find she was to become a regular boarder.
They asked numerous questions as they helped her to unpack and settle
her room, but accepted her conservative answers without comment.
At the noon luncheon Mary Louise was accorded a warm reception by
the assembled boarders and this cordial welcome by her school-mates
did much to restore the girl to her normal condition of cheerfulness.
She even joined a group in a game of tennis after luncheon and it was
while she was playing that little Miss Dandler came with, a message
that Mary Louise was wanted in Miss Stearne's room at once.
"Take my racquet," she said to Jennie Allen; "I'll be back in a minute."
When she entered Miss Stearne's room she was surprised to find herself
confronted by the same man whom she and her grandfather had
encountered in front of Cooper's Hotel the previous afternoon--the man
whom she secretly held responsible for this abrupt change in her life.
The principal sat crouched over her desk as if overawed by her visitor,
who stopped his nervous pacing up and down the room as the girl
appeared.
"This is Mary Louise Burrows," said Miss Stearne, in a weak voice.
"Huh!" He glared at her with a scowl for a moment and then demanded:
"Where's Hathaway?"
Mary Louise reddened.

"I do not know to whom you refer," she answered quietly.
"Aren't you his granddaughter?"
"I am the granddaughter of Colonel James Weatherby, sir."
"It's all the same; Hathaway or Weatherby, the scoundrel can't disguise
his personality. Where is he?"
She did not reply. Her eyes had narrowed a little, as the Colonel's were
sometimes prone to do, and her lips were pressed firmly together.
"Answer me!" he shouted, waving his arms threateningly.
"Miss Stearne," Mary Louise said, turning to the principal, "unless you
request your guest to be more respectful I shall leave the room."
"Not yet you won't,"