Molly Brown's College Friends Part 19

"I never expected to get in on a fudge party," he said, contentedly settling himself by Judy, who was bursting with news.

"Now begin!" commanded Margaret, rapping for order in much the old manner of cla.s.s president and presiding officer.

"Begin at the beginning!" begged Edith.

"Well, first we went by Prexy's, just to get the feeling of youth back in our veins. She saw us, but we chased by."

"So it was you! I wish I had run you down," cried the brother-in-law.

"It is a blessing you did not or a good story would have been ruined,"

said Katherine.

Margaret rapped for order and Judy took up the tale.

"Then we went to call on Mattie Math. She was burning the midnight oil, at least the 10 P. M. oil, and when we acted the Musicians of Bremen, she threw up the sash."

"The hash? What hash?" asked Jessie, who often arrived a bit late.

Shrieks and more rappings from Margaret.

"My, how much I have missed in never being asked to a kimono party before," whispered the male guest in Judy's ear.

"After we had brayed and crowed and meouwed and a dog had barked for us----"

"All together!" cried Katherine, and the musicians gave a sample of their performance, Mrs. Matsuki outdoing all cats by her lifelike caterwauling.

"After that, we went silently down to the village."

"I don't believe it, not silently!" a.s.serted Edwin.

"No interruptions from the minority! We went silently down to the village, veils down, steps stealthy, eyes open and mouths shut. The garden at the Misels' was most inviting in its sweetness and beauty. Of course we wanted to go in and rest on the nice warm stone benches, so we walked through the turnstile and seated ourselves in the little dark summer-house, there to await Adventure."

"Bang! Adventure comes stalkingly in!" cried Otoyo.

"Leaping was more like it!" from Katherine.

"Yes! Who should come springing from the side door, totally oblivious of us, but Misel, stripped for running and looking like a detail from a Greek frieze!"

"Monsieur Misel! Why, Judy, you are mad! Misel is so lame he can't stand alone without crutch and cane!" cried Molly.

"Lame your grandmother! He is a perfect circus actor. I have never seen a private citizen with such control of his muscles. He actually turned somersaults over the hedge in the labyrinth, walked on his hands better than I can on my feet, and cleared the five-foot hedge that borders the street with as much ease as--as--I eat this fudge," reaching for another piece.

"But, Judy, are you sure it was he?" asked Edwin excitedly.

"Of course I am sure!" And then Judy repeated the conversation they had overheard between Misel and his wife. "My German is shady when I have to use it, but I can understand very well."

"So can I," declared Katherine.

"And while I am constructionally verily faultily, I comprehend can,"

said Otoyo, so excited that she ran off to adverb forms as was her wont in times of stress.

"This is serious," said Edwin solemnly. "So serious that I feel I must do something about it and do it immediately. What time is it, honey?" he asked Molly.

"Eleven-fifty! Why, what can you do? Not go fight Misel--not that!"

"No, not that, at least not that yet, although I should like to break his lying crutch over his traitorous head. I must get in touch with the Secret Service. War will be declared any day now and Germany is getting busy even in quiet Wellington."

"You forget Exmoor College is so near," put in Margaret. "Our college boys will officer the new army in part. I'll wager anything that this man has already begun his pacifist propaganda here in Wellington and at Exmoor, too. Has he been to Exmoor?"

"Why, certainly! He got me to take him over and introduce him, the beast!" stormed Edwin. "Please pack my little grip for me, honey," he asked, drawing Molly to him. "I can catch the twelve-forty to New York.

Don't give out that I am away. We had better do a little camouflage act of our own. I am ill, very ill! That will do! Let it be--what shall it be?"

"Mumps!" cried Edith.

"Not mumps, please!" cried Jessie. "Nothing contagious or we might catch it!"

"Or worse than that, even, be quarantined!" laughed Nance.

"Pretty hard on you, honey, as it would stop the ceremony," suggested Molly.

"What do you usually have when you have anything?" asked Margaret with her judicial manner.

"Neuralgia!"

"Then neuralgia would be the natural thing to have when you have not anything."

"Of course! Then, Molly, all day to-morrow your poor husband is ill with neuralgia. Not even the servants and children must come in my darkened room. I'll be home in the night and wake up the next morning feeling much better," and Molly hurried off to pack the grip.

"In time to give the bride away!" suggested Judy.

"May I tell Andy all about it?" asked Nance shyly.

"Of course! We would not be so cruel as to make you start out with a secret from your lord and master," said Edwin.

"It makes me so mad to think how kind Andy was to that man, offering his medical services to him and what not. I know the brutes had a good laugh over his gullibility. Andy told me afterwards that he could not understand the case, and if the man wasn't shamming, it was the most peculiar thing he had ever seen: the way he jumped up out of his chair when he was so lame."

"Now I remember that very night that I heard Madame Misel call her husband a fool on the way into the dining-room. I had forgotten all about it until this minute. I kept wondering what she meant," said Molly.

"I tell you they are deep ones," put in Katherine.

"Not a bit of it!" stormed Judy. "They are the worst of all fools because they think no one else has any sense. Bobby, my beloved parent, always says that is the worst kind of fool. That the wise man, who wants to put over anything, must go to work with the idea that all the persons he wants the scheme to get by with have as much and more sense than he has. Now these Huns think they are the only pebbles on the beach and take for granted that they are dealing with children and fools, and as a rule they get caught up with."

"Not before they do lots of damage, however," said Nance.

"I hope in this instance their machinations have not done any," said Edwin devoutly. "Be sure and give the Misels no inkling they are suspected. All of you remember to be as polite as usual to them if you happen to run across them."

"I'll try, but it will surely go against the grain," said Judy, her eyes flas.h.i.+ng.

"Prove your father's statements, dear little sister, and we shall let these foreigners know that we are not the blockheads they call us."