Winding Paths

Winding Paths, by Gertrude
Page

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Title: Winding Paths
Author: Gertrude Page
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Winding Paths.
By Gertrude Page.
"So many gods, so many creeds, So many paths that wind and wind,
And just the art of being kind Is all the sad world needs."

WINDING PATHS
CHAPTER I
There were several interesting points about Hal Pritchard and Lorraine
Vivian, but perhaps the most striking was their friendship for each
other. From two wide-apart extremes they had somehow gravitated
together, and commenced at boarding-school a friendship which only
deepened and strengthened after their exit from the wise supervision of
the Misses Walton, and their entrance as "finished" young women into
the wide area of the world at large.
Lorraine went first. She was six years older than Hal, and under

ordinary circumstances would hardly have been at school with her at all.
As it was, she went at nineteen because she was not very strong, and
sea air was considered good for her. She was a short of parlour-boarder,
sent to study languages and accomplishments while she inhaled the sea
air of Eastgate. Why, among all the scholars, who for the most part
regarded her as a resplendent, beautifully dressed being outside their
sphere, she should have quickly developed an ardent affection for Hal,
the rough-and-ready tomboy, remained a mystery; but far from being a
passing fancy, it ripened steadily into a deep and lasting attachment.
When Hal was fifteen, Lorraine left; and it has to be admitted that the
anxious, motherly hearts of the Misses Walton drew a deep breath of
relief, and hoped the friendship would now cease, unfed by daily
contact and daily mutual interests. But there they under-estimated the
depth of affection already in the hearts of the girls, and their natural
loyalty, which scorned a mere question of separation, and entered into
one another's interests just as eagerly as when they were together.
Not that they, the Misses Walton, had anything actually against
Lorraine, beyond the fact that she promised a degree of beauty likely,
they felt, coupled as it was with a charming wit and a fascinating
personality, to open out some striking career for her, and possibly
become a snare and a temptation.
On the other hand, Hal was just a homely, nondescript, untidy, riotous
type of schoolgirl, with a very strong capacity for affection, and an
unmanageable predilection for scrapes and adventures, that made her
more likely to fall under the sway of Lorraine, should it promise any
chance of excitement.
And one had only to view Lorraine among the other "young ladies" of
the seminary to fear the worst. Miss Emily Walton would never have
admitted it; but even she, fondly clinging to the old tradition that the
terms "girls" or "women" are less impressive than "young ladies", felt
somehow that the orthodox nomenclature did not successfully fit her
two most remarkable pupils. Of course they were ladies by birth and
education, else they would certainly not have been admitted to so select
a seminary; but whereas the rest of the pupils might be said more or

less to study, and improve, and have their being in a milk and biscuit
atmosphere, Hal and Lorraine were quite uncomfortably more like
champagne and good, honest, frothing beer.
No amount of prunes and prism advice and surroundings seemed to
dull the sparkle in Lorraine, nor daunt nor suppress fearless, outspoken,
unmanageable Hal. In separate camps, with a nice little following each,
to keep an even balance, they might merely have livened the free hours;
but as a combination it soon