D 
 
 k 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 -, 
 
 LO 
 
 d 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 z 
 
 Of 
 
 1 
 
 0) 
 
 
 -^ 
 
 
 
 ^**v*~N 
 
 Q 
 
 4) 
 
 c 
 
 
 0) 
 
 
 
 1^-^ m 
 
 S 
 
 D 
 
 Q 
 
 
 
 
 
 CM 
 
 o 
 
 <2 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 | 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 ;' 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 ! d 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 * ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 "5 1 "5 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Q 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 f. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 |i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 d 
 
 Hi ,d 
 
 
 
 
 
 S 
 
 
 
 P-^ CCi 
 
 
 
 e 
 
 
 
 
 
 erf 0) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 rCj fs 
 
 ol & 
 
 
 
 (Q 
 
 O 
 
 
 
 
 | 
 
 
 
 
 
 PQ 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 . w 
 
 
 
 PO 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 *J 'S 
 
 
 
 0. 
 
 H 
 -P 
 -P 
 
 
 u 
 
 *^ 
 
 >-J w 
 
 Jril 
 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 /i 
 
 
 ^W| ^.^M 
 
 Pi ^3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 to 
 
 x 
 
 
 -J 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 LLJ 
 
 
 ^*""~ . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 "~~~ 
 
 
 
 
 Q. 
 O 
 
 => i 
 
 
 ,_ 
 
 
 
 c 
 
 k 
 
 u 
 
 o I 
 
 
 o 
 
 -C D 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 .2 
 
 "o 
 
 Z | 
 
 
 D ~ 
 
 < 1- 
 
 
 
 LLJ 
 
 2 
 
 Q. 
 
 d 
 
 8 !

 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN
 
 THE "TEDDT" BOOKS 
 
 By ANNA CHAPIN RAT 
 
 TEDDY : HER BOOK 
 PHEBE : HER PROFESSION 
 TEDDY : HER DAUGHTER 
 NATHALIE'S CHUM 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN
 
 Ursula's Freshman 
 
 BY 
 ANNA CHAPIN RAY 
 
 Author of " Teddy, Her Book" "Phebe, Her Profession,' 
 "Nathalie's Chum" "The Dominant Strain," etc. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY 
 HARRIET ROOSEVELT RICHARDS 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
 1903
 
 Copyright, f<poj, 
 BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 Published, October, 1903
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 " ' But I thought you did n't like girls ' " . . . Frontispiece 
 
 " Mrs. Myers saw the critical moment approaching 
 
 fast" Page 38 
 
 " ' Be still, Ursula ! John, what has happened to 
 
 you?'" " 115 
 
 " The sight of them took away somewhat of the 
 
 bitterness from her crying " " 154 
 
 " ' By Jove, you look like a veritable wood-nymph,' 
 
 he said admiringly " " 219 
 
 " ' It seems ages on ages ago,' said Ursula " . . " 266 
 
 2229054
 
 Ursula's Freshman 
 
 CHAPTER ONE 
 
 SHE will be with me, all winter." 
 Mrs. Gifford Barrett, born Phebe Mc- 
 Alister, raised her brows in polite interrogation. 
 Then she tried to turn her attention to the silk 
 on the counter before her. 
 
 " Yes. She is named for me, you see ; and I 
 have never really done anything to recognize 
 her. It will be a fine thing for her, and I can do 
 it now, better than later on. And yet, it is going 
 to be a great care, this taking charge of an un- 
 formed girl." 
 
 " You may find her a most enjoyable addition 
 to your family, Mrs. Myers. How much did you 
 say this is ? " Mrs. Barrett turned to the sales- 
 man, with the evident intention of ending the 
 conversation. 
 
 Her companion refused to take the hint. 
 
 " Buying gowns, the very week you are back 
 from Europe ? " she inquired gayly.
 
 2 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 Mrs. Barrett shuddered a little at the idea of 
 her own rather majestic proportions clad in the 
 violent Prussian blue under her hand. 
 
 " No ; merely pillows for Rex's room." 
 
 "I remember. He goes into Yale, this fall. 
 John will enter, next year. He is to take his 
 final examinations, the week he is sixteen." 
 
 Mrs. Barrett parried the thrust indifferently. 
 
 "Yes, and my lazy boy is nineteen. But he 
 was too energetic to devote himself to his books 
 as closely as your John has done. Both Mr. 
 Barrett and I have cared more for a sound body 
 and steady nerves than for too close sticking to 
 books." 
 
 "Oh, John is perfectly healthy. His looks 
 are deceptive, and he is never very exuberant." 
 
 " And is his cousin like him ? You said she 
 was your brother's daughter, I think." 
 
 Mrs. Myers shrugged her shoulders ever so 
 slightly. 
 
 "It is quite impossible to tell what she may 
 be. She is utterly untrained, I suppose, for she 
 has spent all her life in a scrap of an Iowa town, 
 and a minister with a large family can't give too 
 much time to any one child. However, if she is 
 tractable, I can put up with a good deal of crude- 
 ness at the start, and John's influence over her 
 will be very helpful," Mrs. Myers answered as
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 blandly as if her maternal care were not seeking 
 to create the worst incipient prig upon Manhattan 
 Island. 
 
 " Is she younger than he ? " 
 
 " Only a month ; but the different training 
 will count in his favor. He is so mature and 
 reliable." 
 
 Mrs. Barrett let the silk drop from her hand. 
 
 " Ten yards, please," she said abruptly. 
 
 Far back in the salesman's eyes there came the 
 suspicion of a twinkle. This was by no means 
 the first silk he had sold to Mrs. Barrett, and he 
 knew her ways of giving vent to her exasperation. 
 Mrs. Myers babbled on, quite unaware of the fact 
 that she was hopelessly antagonizing the woman 
 with whom for years she had been trying to be 
 upon familiar terms. 
 
 Again she ignored the obvious hint that she 
 should take her departure. 
 
 " Does your son go away soon ? " she asked, 
 while she lingered as if attracted by the folds of 
 silk on which her hand was resting. 
 
 " Yale opens, a week from Thursday. We are 
 going up, Monday." Mrs. Barrett laid the last 
 coin down on the counter with a vicious slap. 
 Mrs. Myers was not of her carefully chosen 
 world. 
 
 "We?"
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 " Yes. I am going up to help settle his room, 
 and Mrs. Farrington is to meet me there. We 
 shall get things to rights, while Rex is taking his 
 examinations." Mrs. Barrett's tone was as im- 
 personal as if she had been reciting her cate- 
 chism. 
 
 Mrs. Myers shook her head doubtfully. 
 
 " I should never dare do that with John. He 
 would not do as good work in his examinations, 
 if he knew I was waiting for him in his room. 
 But Eex isn't as nervous as John." 
 
 " I don't propose to wait for Rex, anyway. 
 My function is to work," Mrs. Barrett responded 
 grimly. 
 
 " It amounts to the same thing." 
 
 "Not always." She turned to the salesman. 
 " No ; I will take it with me. I am in a great 
 hurry, this morning." 
 
 Mrs. Myers looked at her regretfully. 
 
 " Good-bye, Mrs. Barrett," she said, with a 
 caressing accent on the first syllable. " If I find 
 that my new charge is too much for me, I shall 
 come to you for advice. They say you've made 
 a great success of the Arterburn girl." 
 
 Mrs. Barrett forgot her haste and faced about 
 swiftly. 
 
 "Miss Arterburn and her brother are most 
 charming additions to our circle of friends, Mrs.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 Myers ; and it has been a great delight to us to 
 have them with us, this last year." 
 
 " I've no doubt of it," Mrs. Myers assented 
 meekly. " I only hope I shall be able to say as 
 much of my young niece." 
 
 "I trust you may. Good-morning." And 
 Mrs. Barrett walked away with the stride of an 
 offended goddess in the skirts of a London tailor. 
 
 And, meanwhile, the young niece was sitting 
 on her own back steps, shelling beans for dinner. 
 
 It was a week, now, since the monotony of 
 Ursula Thain's life had been broken by the com- 
 ing of a crested, cream-colored letter from New 
 York. Up to that time, in her girlish mind, 
 Aunt Ursula's name had stood for a vision com- 
 pounded from the belated fashion plates of the 
 passing years, and for the motive power of oc- 
 casional trunks that came to her mother, stuffed 
 with costly flimsiness which was wholly unsuited 
 to their simple surroundings. Mr. Thain was 
 unworldly and of lofty ideals ; yet even he never 
 failed to speak with a certain pride of his older 
 sister who had married a rising young broker. 
 With the passing of the years, the broker had 
 risen to a height of prosperity which Mr. Thain, 
 in his quiet environment, was unable to realize. 
 To him and indirectly to his family, Sister 
 Ursula was still the pretty daughter of a coun-
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 try pastor, who had married well and lived in an 
 apartment near Stuyvesant Square. She had 
 changed her address since then, but the new 
 street and number carried no meaning to her 
 brother's mind. 
 
 And now, all at once, it had been decided that 
 Ursula Thain was to spend the winter with her 
 aunt in New York. 
 
 " But we can't let her go. I need her," Mrs. 
 Thain had protested. 
 
 Ursula, listening, held her breath. It was not 
 that she was disloyal to her home ; . but few girls 
 of fifteen could ignore the charm of a life that 
 overflowed with ruffles of green chiffon and pet- 
 ticoats of greenish-gray silk. Ursula's best pet- 
 ticoat was of black cashmere, cut down from one 
 of her mother's gowns. And New York was a 
 huge city, fifty, sixty, ninety times as large as 
 Lucretia. The very thought was alluring ; but 
 she pulled her mind away from it abruptly. 
 
 " It is altogether too good an opportunity to 
 be lost," her father was saying, in what she 
 called his " and-finally-brethren " tone. "She 
 needs . better schools ; she needs to see what the 
 world is like. It isn't as if she were going among 
 strangers. Ursula is my only sister ; she can do 
 for the child what we can never hope to do. No 
 wonder she wants to see her niece and namesake."
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 " But how will she go ? " Mrs. Thain inter- 
 rupted practically. 
 
 The good minister looked startled. He was 
 never quite prepared to have his wife pull him 
 out of a reverie by one of her matter-of-fact 
 questions. 
 
 " Why in the cars, I suppose," he replied 
 vaguely, his mind still intent upon his sister's 
 present and his child's future. 
 
 "Naturally. It would take rather too long 
 for her to walk, and automobiles are expensive. 
 But she can't go alone," his wife said dryly. 
 
 " It is possible that I could go with her. I I 
 have been thinking for some time that I ought 
 to go East and get into touch with some of our 
 men there. There's a convention in Boston, the 
 first week in October, and it might be a help 
 it couldn't help being a help to me to go there." 
 He paused irresolutely. Then he added, with 
 sudden decision, " Anyway, the child must go. 
 We can't afford to refuse Ursula's generous 
 offer." 
 
 His wife started to speak, glanced down at her 
 shabby gown, around at the plain room, then up 
 at her husband's animated face, the mobile face 
 of a dreamer and an enthusiast. Then, for the 
 dozenth time, she turned her back upon the hopes 
 that went with a certain little hoard, scrimped
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 here and there from the narrow margins of the 
 housekeeping allowance. Eising, she crossed 
 the room and laid her hand on his shoulder. 
 
 "It will be just what you need, Irving," she 
 said heartily. " You will preach all the better 
 for a bit of change and holiday, and you will 
 come back with any number of fresh ideas about 
 your parish work. Of course, I shall miss the 
 child ; but it would be wrong to allow her to 
 lose the chance. How soon do you think you 
 ought to start ? " 
 
 And Ursula Thain, true child of such parents, 
 caught her breath as she listened. It was one 
 thing to see New York and its glories ; it was 
 quite another to turn her back for a year upon 
 her dreamy father, her steadfast mother and the 
 tribe of younger children that crammed the 
 little house to overflowing. The rival claims 
 were strong and equally matched. Left to 
 herself, she never could have chosen between 
 them. 
 
 That was a week ago. Now the beans fell 
 mechanically from her slender brown fingers, 
 while she stared out across the prairie with un- 
 seeing brown eyes. It was Tuesday noon. On 
 the following Thursday, she and her father were 
 to start upon their journey eastward, and, for 
 the moment, Ursula's thoughts were as intent
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 upon the journey as upon the unknown life 
 which awaited her at her journey's end. New 
 York was a mere name to her, although she had 
 spent much time, the past week, in staring at 
 certain pictures in a bound volume of Harper's 
 Weekly that one of her girl friends had lent her 
 for her enlightenment. She had tried to grasp 
 their meaning, and she had failed. Did her 
 Aunt Ursula live in a house twenty-two stories 
 high, and wear a gown which stopped short at 
 her shoulder-blades ? Did she customarily adorn 
 her head, like an Indian on a penny, with a tuft 
 of feathers? Ursula was open to conviction; 
 but she felt that she must draw the line at some- 
 thing. She would wait and see for herself. But 
 the journey was something more tangible. Two 
 trains east and two trains west passed through 
 Lucretia daily, and Ursula had even made oc- 
 casional expeditions by rail to Jenkinton, the 
 county town ten miles away. But New York 
 was much, much farther. The prairie grew dim 
 before her thoughtful eyes. 
 
 " Hurry, Ursula ! It is time the beans were 
 cooking. You know dinner will have to be early, 
 if we go to Jenkinton, this afternoon." 
 
 In her haste to conceal her emotion, Ursula 
 mistook a bean-pod for her handkerchief. The 
 scratch across her lids acted as a counter-irritant,
 
 10 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 and she dismissed her tears together with her 
 dreams. 
 
 Her mother's face was thoughtful as she put 
 the beans on to boil, and the thought was not all 
 for the stove in front of her. However, ex- 
 perience had taught Mrs. Thain that reverie had 
 no place in her life, that, for her, thought and 
 work must go hand in hand. She crossed the 
 room, took up her rolling-pin, then called to her 
 daughter who had gone back to her seat on the 
 steps. 
 
 "Come here, Ursula. I want to talk with 
 you." 
 
 For some moments after the girl had seated 
 herself at her mother's elbow, the pin rolled and 
 whacked unceasingly. 
 
 " I don't know how I am going to spare you, 
 child," Mrs. Thain said abruptly, at last. " A 
 year is a long time, and I've come to depend on 
 you a good deal." 
 
 Something unusual in the tone struck Ursula. 
 She looked up to see two heavy tears clinging to 
 her mother's lashes. The unwonted sight brought 
 the lump back into her own throat, and she had 
 a momentary longing to throw herself into her 
 mother's arms ; but Mrs. Thain was unduly tall 
 and angular, and the rolling-pin was busy again. 
 It was the frequent case : the mother arms were
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 11 
 
 too full to give the invitation dictated by the 
 hungry mother heart. 
 
 " I'm I'm willing to stay at home, if you need 
 me, mother," Ursula faltered mendaciously. 
 
 " No ; you're not. If you are, I'm not willing 
 you should. It's not that I really need you, 
 either, though you are a splendid hand with the 
 children, and you do save me a good many steps. 
 But Mary can help me about as much, only I 
 can't talk things over with her. She is too young 
 to plan and contrive with me, as you do." 
 
 " I wonder if I really ought to go," Ursula said 
 thoughtfully. 
 
 Her mother turned on her with a swift gleam 
 of hope in her eyes. 
 
 " Don't you want to go, Ursula ? " 
 
 " I do, and then I don't. It is going to be fun 
 to see New York and to go visiting for a whole 
 year, and to have this long journey with father ; 
 but then again I just can't bear to leave you and 
 Molly and the children. I want you, and I want 
 New York; and the two wants are in such a 
 tangle that I can't unsnarl them. "What shall I 
 do, mother ? " She looked up despairingly from 
 the horns of this, her first dilemma. 
 
 The rolling-pin flew to and fro busily; then 
 with a flap and a tuck the pie was covered and 
 in the oven, before Mrs. Thain spoke again.
 
 12 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 " Ursula," she said, with a slow accent which 
 betrayed the fact that, for her, life was too busy 
 for many endearments ; " you have been a great 
 comfort sometimes. You are steady and reliable, 
 and I shall miss you ; but I think I am glad you 
 are going. Don't anticipate it too much, though. 
 It is hard to transplant things, whether they are 
 bean-stalks or girls, and have them keep on grow- 
 ing straight. Generally they have a hitch, to 
 show where they strike the new soil. You will 
 like the new soil ; but there will be days when 
 you will feel as if your roots would never get 
 used to it, and it will take all your grit not to be 
 discouraged. But remember this: your father 
 loves your Aunt Ursula with all his heart, and 
 he still thinks of her as the same girl he knew 
 in the old home. Men don't make allowance for 
 change as women do, and I imagine he will be 
 some surprised, when he sees her. But be care- 
 ful what you write home; your father hurts 
 easily, and he takes his hurts to heart more than 
 some people do." 
 
 Ursula looked terrified. 
 
 " Will will Aunt Ursula be hateful to me ? " 
 she asked slowly. 
 
 " Not according to her lights ; but her lights 
 are electricity, ours are sunshine," Mrs. Thain 
 answered, with one of the phrases which came
 
 URSULA'S FEESHMAN 13 
 
 but rarely nowadays to explain why her husband 
 had fallen in love with her, twenty years before. 
 " She will finish you, as she calls it ; but it doesn't 
 do much good to put a high polish on to an im- 
 perfect grain. Kemember that, Ursula. Money 
 is good, and so are manners ; but you can be just 
 as much of a lady shelling beans for dinner as 
 you can going out to walk with a maid and 
 trailing a poodle along behind you. If you've 
 got brains and common sense and a good heart, 
 the rest will come of itself." 
 
 " But Aunt Ursula has those things and a lot 
 of others besides," Ursula protested, in loyal sup- 
 port of her unknown aunt. 
 
 "Maybe. Maybe not. She's got the brains 
 and the good heart, but I'm not so sure of the 
 common sense," Mrs. Thain retorted, with a 
 swift recollection of the green chiffon frills stowed 
 away in the garret. "Anyway, child, make the 
 best of your good times. You've had a good 
 start, and I think we can count on you not to go 
 far wrong, as long as you don't get your head 
 turned with so many new notions. And when 
 you get homesick, don't give up and write home. 
 Shut your teeth together, and remember mother, 
 and stick it out till you feel better." She stooped 
 to kiss the unsteady lips. Then she added, " Now 
 run away and take the scraps to the pig, and then
 
 14 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 get ready for dinner. We must hurry, if we are 
 to get that new suit. Your father insists upon 
 it that your aunt expects to buy your new clothes 
 in New York ; but I'm not going to have my child 
 go to her aunt, needing to have a new dress, the 
 first minute she gets there."
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 15 
 
 CHAPTEE TWO 
 
 is the last person I would trust with 
 the care of a growing girl." 
 
 " Oh, I think she will feed her properly." 
 
 " Don't be flippant, Ted." Mrs. Barrett spoke 
 with some asperity. " It isn't a case merely of 
 Mellin's Food and a good dressmaker ; though I 
 am willing to admit that those small items do 
 count for something. Still, they are items." 
 
 "You speak with authority, considering that 
 your experience is limited " 
 
 " To chaperoning one girl for ten months ? 
 Mayhap. But I was the power behind the 
 throne for ever so long before that, and even you 
 will admit that Nathalie is a success." 
 
 "Modesty was never one of your failings, 
 Babe. In this case, though, you have some 
 reason to be proud, for Nathalie shows good 
 training. When Giff's music and money fail, I 
 advise you to start a dame school and instruct 
 the rising generation in the three M's : manners, 
 morals and mending." 
 
 At her sister's bantering tone, Mrs. Barrett
 
 16 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 gave a hostile sniff. Then her keen eyes soft- 
 ened. 
 
 " Don't make fun of me, Ted. I like healthy, 
 useful girls, and I get on with them. Let me 
 have my playthings, as long as I don't hurt them. 
 Nathalie is a dear child, and has been a great 
 comfort to me, the past ten months." 
 
 " Comfort, you pampered worlding ! For 
 what do you need comforting? Giff breathes 
 for you, and Rex adores you." 
 
 Mrs. Barrett laughed outright. 
 
 " My language was more sentimental than my 
 mood, Ted. Rex pronounces Nathalie a brick. 
 Do you prefer that phrase ? " 
 
 Mrs. Gifford Barrett and Mrs. William Far- 
 rington were basking in the September sunshine 
 which flooded a ragged point of rocks that juts 
 out into Long Island Sound. Behind them were 
 the huddled cottages of a summer colony, over 
 their heads was one stunted, misshapen cedar, 
 before their eyes was the blue water of the 
 Sound, backed by the bluer line of the Island, 
 twenty miles away. On another point of rocks, 
 fifty feet distant, a scarlet parasol was tilting 
 this way and that in the hands of the boy who 
 was laying down the law to his girl com- 
 panion. 
 
 For a few minutes, the silence between the sis-
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 17 
 
 ters was unbroken. Then Mrs. Barrett turned 
 suddenly. 
 
 " Ted, it is rather good to see you again. You 
 understand some things better than most people." 
 
 It was not exuberant praise ; but Mrs. Farring- 
 ton did understand. 
 
 " When did you see Mrs. Myers ? " she asked, 
 after another interval. 
 
 " I met her at Lord and Taylor's, the day after 
 we landed. I was waiting for some one to wait 
 on me ; she, apparently, was waiting for me to 
 be waited upon. I do wish the wrong people 
 wouldn't like me." 
 
 Mrs. Farrington ignored the plaint. 
 
 " What is the cause of her sudden hospitality ? " 
 
 "I can't imagine. She says that the girl is 
 named for her, that she has never done anything 
 
 for her and Then she giggled a little, and 
 
 added that it might be more convenient to have 
 her now than later." 
 
 " Before there is any need of bringing her 
 out," Mrs. Farrington commented shrewdly. 
 
 " Yes, youthfulness comes cheap. And she 
 will be a good companion for John. Teddy, I 
 don't like that boy." 
 
 "Why not?" " 
 
 "Chiefly because he is smarter than Rex," 
 she acknowledged.
 
 18 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 Mrs. Farrington shook her head. 
 
 " It depends upon what you mean by smart- 
 ness. Book-learning isn't everything ; Rex 
 knows a few things that even Homer never 
 dreamed of. They may not make the same 
 showing on an examination paper ; but they are 
 vastly more useful in the long run. A little 
 knowledge of the comparative values of things 
 will keep him steady, when classics and conic 
 sections fail." 
 
 " I am glad you think so, for I confess that I 
 hate to leave the boy, to-morrow." 
 
 "It's good for him. You can't keep him a 
 child forever." 
 
 " I know that ; but he is lazy and needs me to 
 prod him along, and he never knows enough to 
 put on warmer undershirts, when the mornings 
 are frosty. It will be a miracle if he escapes 
 either conditions or consumption." 
 
 Mrs. Farrington laughed. 
 
 " It is a mystery to me, Babe, how you ever 
 have managed to bring up two older boys, and 
 have so much strength left to worry over 
 Rex." 
 
 " Oh, I let them bring themselves up, while I 
 was taking care of Rex," Mrs. Barrett returned 
 tranquilly. "Anyway, I haven't spoiled him. 
 He's a man, every inch of him. But it is time
 
 URSULA' 8 FRESHMAN 19 
 
 that he and Nathalie were starting, if we're to 
 get back in season to dress for dinner." 
 
 The scarlet parasol waved an answer to her 
 call, as the boy and girl scrambled to their feet. 
 For a moment, they stood silhouetted against the 
 blue water, while they stared out across the 
 golden sunset to a group of distant sails. Mrs. 
 Barrett, however, was heedless of their gesture 
 of admiration. Instead of the glistening sea and 
 the shining sails, she was watching the tall, 
 slender boy and the energetic girl with hair the 
 color of the sunset. In dress and manner and 
 gesture, both were marked with the simplicity 
 of gentle birth and good breeding ; under the 
 sunburn of their recent sea voyage, their faces 
 were comely with health and good temper. 
 Mrs. Barrett watched them, and told herself that 
 they were good to watch. Then the pride died 
 out of her face, and her eyes danced with mirth. 
 
 Unnoticed by either of the sisters, their soli- 
 tude had been invaded and, as they turned 
 around, their eyes fell upon another pair of peo- 
 ple perched on a rock close at hand. The neigh- 
 borhood of a famous university sees many a 
 quaint figure prowling about in search of inter- 
 esting points of observation. Sooner or later, 
 the whole world passes in review before the 
 town pump on the New Haven green ; and the
 
 20 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 residents of the staid old city grow indifferent to 
 the endless procession of educational pilgrims. 
 However, rarely even the town pump has seen a 
 more unworldly pair of people than the man and 
 the girl who were sitting hand in hand on the 
 rocks, absorbed in eager conversation. 
 
 Mrs. Barrett's eyes were quick and keen. It 
 needed no second glance to show her the man's 
 shiny black clothes, ample in the region of the 
 shoulder-blades and knees, scant at the wrists 
 and ankles, his collar which seemed constructed 
 with the sole idea of showing off his Adam's 
 apple, his limp black tie and the Phi Beta Kappa 
 charm that dangled from his black mohair watch- 
 guard. The face was thin and worn; but the 
 eyes were alert. One hand was in the clasp of 
 the girl at his side ; the other held the handle of 
 a battered tin skillet, evidently rescued from the 
 'long-shore rubbish, dripping with the salty water 
 which was slowly draining from the dozen clams 
 in the bottom. 
 
 The girl had certain possibilities of beauty. 
 Her features were good, her complexion clear 
 and her hair and eyes were bright brown. Fate 
 had intended her for a pretty girl ; but the hand 
 of Fate had been paralyzed by the stronger hand 
 of some one who was not only color-blind, but a 
 worshiper as well at the shrine of the service-
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 21 
 
 able. The supple, firm lines and the clear tints 
 were disguised by a coat and skirt of the most 
 uncompromising shade of biddy-brown, which 
 suggested in their shaping the same architect that 
 had created the man's clothing. Under the open 
 jacket was a tight bodice of magenta flannel 
 decorated with bars of black velvet and further 
 beautified with a pale blue ribbon at the throat. 
 Three pink roses adorned the brown sailor hat, 
 and the gloves were of gray cotton, with an 
 elastic band in lieu of buttons. Mrs. Barrett 
 glanced backwards towards Nathalie's rough 
 blue skirt and crisp white waist. Then she 
 turned whimsically to her sister. 
 
 " It takes all sorts to make a world," she mur- 
 mured ; " but even my zeal would ooze out before 
 that damsel. I wish I could lay my hands on 
 the miscreant who invented that particular shade 
 of brown dye." 
 
 " Sterling qualities and a sense of high art 
 don't always go hand in hand in this world," 
 Mrs. Farrington returned. " But what eyes the 
 man had, Babe ! " 
 
 " I didn't get above his collar," Mrs. Barrett 
 answered gloomily, as she led the way back to 
 the car. 
 
 But the car was slow to appear. When at last 
 it started towards the city again, the man and
 
 22 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 the girl were in it and seated opposite to Mrs. 
 Barrett who eyed them askance in the intervals 
 of her talk with the others. 
 
 " Oh, I'm glad we are going back again," the 
 girl said eagerly, as the car moved off. 
 
 " Don't you like the sea ? " 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 " It's not so good as the city. I like the stir 
 and the seeing new people." 
 
 " But the sun on the waves, and the splash 
 against the rocks, and the white sails ! " the man 
 urged, peering into the skillet which he still car- 
 ried in his hand. 
 
 The girl laughed, showing her small, even 
 teeth and a dimple in her right cheek. 
 
 " But they aren't in there, father. And what 
 would mother say, if she could see the mud on 
 your shoes and your cuffs all soaking wet ? " 
 
 He glanced anxiously at his demoralized cloth- 
 ing, and changed the position of the skillet that 
 was leaking lazily down his trouser-leg. Then 
 his eyes brightened. 
 
 " She would say it was worth something to 
 turn into a child again. I used to dig clams, the 
 summer I was eleven, and I've never seen the 
 salt water since then. By George, child, it 
 would make a boy of me, if I were to spend a 
 summer by the sea ! "
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 23 
 
 The girl's eyes widened. She had never before 
 heard her father use so near an approach to pro- 
 fanity ; neither had she seen him so reckless in 
 the matter of his cuffs. In the recesses of her 
 heart, she rejoiced that the next day would see 
 them safely on their way to New York. 
 
 " And so you like the cities best," her father 
 was saying. " You have seen a good many of 
 them on the way east. Can you remember them 
 all ? " 
 
 This was the signal for the review lesson in 
 geography which must be recited at least twice 
 a day, and the girl answered to it promptly. 
 
 "Cedar Kapids, Burlington, Chicago, Cleve- 
 land." Then she broke off abruptly. " Why 
 didn't you go to Yale, father ? " 
 
 " I couldn't afford it." 
 
 " But you went to college." 
 
 " Yes. To Dartmouth." 
 
 " You could afford that." 
 
 "It is a little college, and it doesn't cost so 
 much," he explained. 
 
 " Was it as good ? " 
 
 "N-no." 
 
 " Then why didn't you come to Yale ? " 
 
 " Your grandfather was a poor minister, dear." 
 
 " But you earned the money, yourself. I've 
 heard you say so, any number of times."
 
 24 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 The man's mind flashed backwards over dreary 
 years of toiling and scrimping. 
 
 " Yes," he assented. 
 
 The girl's lips straightened. 
 
 "Then why didn't you earn more?" she de- 
 manded, with the uncompromising bluntness of 
 youth. " If I were going to do it, I wouldn't 
 stop till I had the very best college in the 
 country. I don't want any half-way things. 
 And yet, you know more than any other man I 
 have ever seen," she added thoughtfully, as she 
 tucked her baggy gray glove into the hollow of 
 his elbow. " I suppose that's just the You of it. 
 Wherever you went, you'd come out ahead." 
 
 The man looked down at her and smiled. For 
 a moment, there lay between them the blissful 
 silence of perfect good-fellowship. Then the girl 
 spoke again. 
 
 " Father, isn't that a student over there ? " 
 
 Her father's eyes twinkled, as he saw Kex's ears 
 turn rosy red. 
 
 " What makes you think so ? " 
 
 "The way he wears his cap, and he looks so 
 sort of used to things. I shouldn't wonder if he 
 was a senior." And she lapsed into silent study 
 of Rex Barrett, quite unconscious of the smothered 
 mirth of the girl in the blue skirt, who had been 
 watching her with merry, mocking eyes.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 25 
 
 The car was whirring along above the tiny 
 mallow-circled lake, before the girl spoke again. 
 This time, the brown eyes were sorrowful. 
 
 "A week from to-night is going to be our 
 last night together for a whole year," she said 
 slowly. 
 
 " Yes." The man tried to speak briskly. " And 
 then I shall hurry home to see what mother has 
 been doing without us, and your good times will 
 begin." 
 
 " Perhaps they will end," she suggested. 
 
 " Not homesick already, child ? " 
 
 " Ko ; only a great deal scared. I feel as if I 
 were stepping off from the end of something, and 
 didn't know where I might land," she returned. 
 " And then I have had such a perfect time with 
 you, all this week. I never had such a good time 
 before, nor saw so many new things." 
 
 "But you are going to keep on seeing new 
 things." 
 
 " Not with you. That makes a difference." 
 
 " They used to say Sister Ursula and I were a 
 good deal alike," he said thoughtfully. 
 
 " I hope so ; then I sha'n't be afraid of her. 
 Of course I want to go there, and I want her to 
 like me. I don't want to be invited company ; 
 I'd like best to be just one of the family and not 
 have her make any extra fuss for me." Then the
 
 26 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 young face grew earnest. " She is your only 
 sister, father, and she hasn't any daughter of her 
 own. While I stay with her, I'd love to be just 
 like a daughter to her. But what do you sup- 
 pose she will say, when she sees me ? " 
 
 What Aunt Ursula did say was both orthodox 
 and adequate. Then she fled to her own room, 
 beckoned her husband to follow her, and locked 
 the door noiselessly. 
 
 " Henry ! " she whispered then. " Henry ! " 
 And then, " Henry Myers, what in the world 
 am I to do with that Object ? "
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 27 
 
 CHAPTER THREE 
 
 INASMUCH as Providence had ordained that 
 young John Myers should be apparently too 
 indifferent even to be snobbish, Mrs. Myers 
 promptly ordained that her young son should be 
 detailed to show his uncle the sights of the town. 
 Accordingly, the country minister and the city 
 boy inspected all things from the Aquarium to 
 the Eden Musee, and from the Eden Musee to 
 the uttermost confines of Bronx Park. The boy 
 was taciturn and lacked all enthusiasm, yet his 
 uncle was not sorry that John, rather than Mrs. 
 Myers, was to be his companion. For some rea- 
 son, he felt more at ease in the presence of his 
 nephew's manifest boredom than in that of his 
 sister's sprightly enthusiasm. 
 
 For sixteen years, the brother and sister had 
 never met. The brother was too poor to take so 
 long a journey ; the sister was always too busy. 
 They had exchanged occasional letters, however, 
 and the tone of the letters had altered but little. 
 Mr. Thain had looked for no disloyalty ; in con- 
 sequence, he had found none. On his own side,
 
 28 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 he had remained true to the ideal which, long 
 since, he had formed of his sister. Now that at 
 last they were face to face, he was unable to tell 
 just wherein she differed from that ideal, yet the 
 difference was there, and it irked him. For some 
 inexplicable reason, he was not quite at ease in 
 her society. 
 
 " I really think I am very generous," Mrs. 
 Myers said, as her guests sat down to dinner, the 
 night of their arrival. " I am going to let John 
 have the fun of prowling about with his uncle. 
 John is an affectionate boy, Irving. You don't 
 know how he has counted on your being here." 
 She paused to give her son a smile bright enough 
 to temper the strictness of the commands which 
 she had laid upon him, while his uncle was re- 
 moving the dust of his journey. " And so I 
 shall let him have the good of you, the next few 
 days, and Ursula and I will play by ourselves." 
 
 And Ursula, wide-eyed and rather homesick, 
 smiled faintly in assent, as she stared from her 
 gorgeous little aunt to the evening clothes of her 
 uncle whose black coat was as shiny as that of 
 her father, although from a different reason. 
 Then she roused herself. 
 
 " No, thank you, ma'am," she said to the trim 
 damsel who stood at her elbow to offer her a 
 plate.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 29 
 
 Her aunt's brows rose and fell again, only for 
 a fraction of an inch ; but Ursula saw them, saw 
 the answering rise of the corners of her uncle's 
 mouth. Then she saw nothing more until, after 
 a moment of salty misery, she resolutely dabbed 
 her napkin across her eyes, choked down her 
 sobs and devoted herself to her dinner which she 
 accepted in detail and with stony indifference, 
 though she only nibbled at the unknown delica- 
 cies which, as she afterwards confided to her 
 father, were very messy. 
 
 At nine o'clock, Ursula dutifully accepted her 
 aunt's suggestion of bedtime. However, when 
 Mr. Thain went to his room, two hours later, he 
 found a doleful little figure huddled into a chair 
 behind his bed. 
 
 " Ursula ? " he said in surprise. 
 
 In another minute, her head was on his shoul- 
 der; her sobs came, unchecked, and her tears 
 completed the wilting of his home-laundered 
 collar. The storm lasted only for a minute 
 or two. Then Ursula regained her self-control 
 as swiftly as she had lost it. She straightened 
 up and pushed back her dark hair, ruffled by her 
 father's caressing hand. 
 
 "I think I hate my Aunt Ursula," she said 
 slowly. " She's not a bit like you, nor like any- 
 body else that I ever set eyes on. She had no
 
 30 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 business to laugh at me. How could I know she 
 kept a hired girl just to hand things round ? I 
 thought she was somebody visiting here that was 
 late to dinner that is, as much as I thought 
 anything at all." 
 
 Mr. Thain tried to stem the tide of her words. 
 
 " I shouldn't mind, dear. It was a very simple 
 mistake." 
 
 Ursula raised her head haughtily. 
 
 " It's not the mistake. I don't mind that one 
 bit. It was her laughing at me before them all, 
 when I'd only just come. I never can like her, 
 and I never will like her. I'm so angry that I'm 
 mad and, what's more, I won't stay here a day 
 longer than you do." 
 
 For his only reply, Mr. Thain raised his head 
 and looked steadily at his tempestuous young 
 daughter. Ursula had met that look before, and 
 she hastened to amend the form of her words. 
 
 " Or, if I do, I'll teach her to know a lady 
 when she sees one," she added vindictively. 
 
 " I hope you will," was her father's quiet an- 
 swer, and it was not until some time after they 
 had kissed each other good-night that Ursula be- 
 gan to suspect the full import of his words. 
 
 If Ursula had counted too literally upon her 
 aunt's suggestion that they were to go out 
 together, the next morning, she was doomed to
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 31 
 
 disappointment. Her face was a little wishful, as 
 she stared out of the front window at the retreat- 
 ing backs of her father and her cousin ; but she 
 resigned herself to waiting until her own sum- 
 mons came. It was long in coming ; but at last 
 she heard her aunt's voice, 
 
 "Now, Ursula?" 
 
 She started alertly. Then her face fell, for 
 Mrs. Myers led the way, not to the street, but to 
 her own room where the next half-hour was 
 given up to a tape measure and a memorandum 
 book. Then Mrs. Myers rose. 
 
 "That's all, child, Now take good care of 
 yourself, and don't get homesick," she said, with 
 a pecking kiss on the girl's forehead. " You'll 
 find some new books on the library table, and 
 I'll be back by lunch-time." 
 
 "But " Ursula's eyes spoke the request 
 
 which her lips were too well-trained to utter. 
 
 Mrs. Myers's glance rested for an instant upon 
 the brown skirt and magenta bodice, and her 
 shoulders drew together ever so slightly. Then 
 she smiled and shook her head. 
 
 "I want you to rest, this morning, child, for 
 you must be very tired with your long journey. 
 This afternoon, we are going out together, and 
 you must keep fresh for that. Your father only 
 has a week here, so the poor man must keep
 
 32 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 moving ; but you have all winter ahead of you, 
 so you can take your own time. Good-bye, child. 
 You'd much better go down to the library and 
 amuse yourself there." 
 
 And Ursula, after she had restored order to 
 that carefully-packed wardrobe which her aunt 
 had tossed about so recklessly, accepted the 
 advice and went down-stairs. As she had hung 
 up her two or three gowns and smoothed the 
 roses in her hat, she had decided that her aunt 
 was a queer sort of hostess, and had sternly 
 resolved that she would not touch a single book, 
 all that morning. Unfortunately, her resolve 
 concerned itself with such shabby black volumes 
 as formed the body of her father's library at 
 home, and it was not proof against the enticing 
 array of green and gold books that she found 
 awaiting her. Ursula fell upon the nearest story 
 with the appetite of a healthy girl, and she looked 
 up in astonishment, when her aunt appeared in 
 the doorway to mention that luncheon was ready. 
 She dropped her book and came forward with the 
 first touch of naturalness that her aunt had seen, 
 and in return Ursula discovered in her aunt's eyes 
 the first suggestion of any natural liking for her 
 self-imposed charge. 
 
 "Come up-stairs, Ursula," her aunt said, as 
 they left the table.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 33 
 
 Ursula's glance moved after her father to the 
 door of the library ; then, reluctantly, she fol- 
 lowed Mrs. Myers back to her room. On the 
 threshold she halted, astonished, for the bed was 
 heaped with clothing, and three or four hats lay 
 on the dressing-table. 
 
 " I had two or three things of a kind sent up, 
 so I could see what looked best on you," her 
 aunt observed in a matter-of-course tone, much as 
 Mrs. Thain might have alluded to sample cakes 
 of laundry soap or boxes of matches. " We'll pick 
 out a couple of these, and then we can get the 
 other things at our leisure." 
 
 "Yes, only " Ursula gasped a little as 
 
 she looked down at her bunchy skirt, and her 
 color came. She and her mother had given 
 much thought and, it seemed to them, an undue 
 allowance of money to the choice of that costume. 
 The bodice had been of home construction ; but 
 the jacket and skirt had come from the show 
 window of the best department store in Jenk- 
 inton, the best, because it chanced to be the 
 only one. 
 
 Mrs. Myers interpreted aright the glance and 
 the flush, and she spoke with unwonted tact. 
 
 "You'll need more gowns here, Ursula, than 
 you did at home, you know." 
 
 And, independent though she was, Ursula
 
 34 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 yielded. There followed an exciting hour of 
 the slipping on and off of softer, daintier fabrics 
 than Ursula had ever known, of turning this way 
 and that, of walking up and down before her 
 aunt's critical gaze. At last, Mrs. Myers breathed 
 a sigh of complete satisfaction. 
 
 "Once more across the room. Now turn 
 slowly. Yes, I thought that would be the very 
 thing. Later, you'll need a brown fur collar. 
 You will walk better by and by, too. Can't 
 you forget that you have any knees ? " 
 
 " Ma'am ? " Ursula faltered in surprise. 
 
 " I beg your pardon, Aunt Ursula," her aunt 
 corrected gently. 
 
 " Wha-at ? " The syllable was very broad and 
 flat, for Ursula began to have fears lest her aunt 
 was mentally deranged. 
 
 Mrs. Myers drew a long breath, and eyed this 
 incorrigible young person cornerwise to see if 
 her impertinence were intentional, or merely the 
 result of accident. After she had halted for a 
 time between the two opinions, she decided to 
 leave that matter in abeyance and, rising, she 
 led the way to the tall mirror in her own room. 
 
 " There ! What do you think of that ? " she 
 demanded triumphantly. 
 
 Ursula looked, her eyes widening, her color 
 deepening, her whole face brightening with
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 35 
 
 pleasure at the sight. It was all very simple : a 
 skirt and jacket of the darkest possible shade of 
 brown, a blouse of the same color barred with 
 threads of tawny yellow, and a dark brown felt 
 hat bound with the breast of a golden pheasant. 
 There was not a fold of trimming, not a line of 
 ornamentation such as Ursula had known and 
 loved from her childhood. Nevertheless, as she 
 stared back at her own reflection, she told her- 
 self that it was good, infinitely better, even, than 
 the ornate magenta bodice. In some vague 
 fashion, it reminded her of the blue-skirted girl 
 she had seen in the car. She sighed contentedly. 
 Then she gave voice to her content. 
 
 " "Well ! " she said slowly, as she turned this 
 way and that. " Well ! I always supposed I 
 was yellow and dumpy. This doesn't make me 
 look so a bit." 
 
 Her aunt smiled. 
 
 " And we will keep the blue for best, and the 
 broad black hat," she said, while she untied the 
 blue satin ribbon on Ursula's hair and replaced it 
 with a black bow. " The other things may as 
 well go back, this afternoon." 
 
 " For best ? " 
 
 "Yes. You will need this to put right on, 
 every day." 
 
 " But I've my light brown one, the one that I
 
 36 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 just took off ; and there's the green for morn- 
 ings." 
 
 For the space of five minutes, Mrs. Myers's face 
 became as inexpressive as a blank wall, as red as 
 the bricks of which the wall was constructed. 
 Then she smiled again. 
 
 " Do you know what I think would be a very 
 nice thing for you to do ? " 
 
 " What's that ? " Ursula demanded suspiciously. 
 
 " Send back those to Molly." Mrs. Myers's 
 tone was velvet-like in its smoothness. "They 
 would be nice for you to have, of course ; but 
 you won't really need them, with these two new 
 ones." 
 
 "Then why don't you send back the new 
 ones ? " Ursula asked sharply, with a swift recol- 
 lection of her lessons in Virgil. Those silk-lined 
 jacket sleeves might, for all she knew, be as 
 stuffed with treachery as was the wooden steed 
 of Troy. 
 
 Mrs. Myers was politic. 
 
 " Aren't you to be my adopted daughter for a 
 year ; and don't mothers always buy pretty gowns 
 for their daughters ? " 
 
 " Yes. My mother did." Ursula's accent was 
 uncompromising, and Mrs. Myers began to fear 
 lest her niece shared Mrs. Thain's color-blindness. 
 
 " But why won't you let me do it, too ? "
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 37 
 
 " Because you say, yourself, that I don't need 
 so many clothes." 
 
 Mrs. Myers felt that she had been caught in 
 her own trap, and she was forced to pause and 
 seek for a way out. She feared to antagonize 
 the girl at the start, since she was well ac- 
 quainted with the temper of the Thains and with 
 their pride. 
 
 " Perhaps I ought to have said that you don't 
 need just the same kind of clothes," she sug- 
 gested. 
 
 " Why not ? " 
 
 " You will go out more, for one thing." 
 
 " I've my brown coat." 
 
 " Yes ; but isn't this prettier ? " Gently she 
 turned Ursula towards the mirror ; but her very 
 gentleness went against the girl's grain. It was 
 the gentleness of infinite patience, not of love. 
 
 There was no answer. Mrs. Myers picked up 
 the magenta bodice and held it between Ursula 
 and the mirror. 
 
 " Which is prettier ? " she repeated. 
 
 The girl frowned. Then she answered hon- 
 estly, 
 
 " This is." 
 
 " Then why not send the other things to Molly, 
 and keep these ? " 
 
 " I don't think it's right."
 
 38 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 " Not if Molly needs them, and you don't ? " 
 
 " Maybe I shall need them ; maybe Molly 
 doesn't. Molly has things of her own." For 
 the moment, it was Mrs. Thain who was speak- 
 ing through the lips of her daughter. 
 
 "But you are to have these new ones any- 
 way," Mrs. Myers said rebukingly. " You 
 ought to be willing to let Molly have the ones 
 you can't use." 
 
 " "Why can't I use them ? " Ursula's tone was 
 haughty. 
 
 "Because " Mrs. Myers saw the critical 
 
 moment approaching fast ; but she was power- 
 less to avoid it. " Because they are not quite 
 suitable." 
 
 With an angry wrench Ursula pulled off the 
 new jacket and threw it on the bed where it lay 
 with its arms outstretched as if praying to be 
 taken up again. The hat followed it. Then, 
 with flashing eyes, the girl turned upon Mrs. 
 Myers. 
 
 "I know what you mean now," she said 
 fiercely. " You mean they aren't genteel enough 
 for you. I don't know as they are. I don't 
 know as I am, myself ; but I can't help it. You 
 ran the risk of all that, when you asked me to 
 come here. You might have known. I know 
 what my mother paid for that suit of mine ; I
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 39 
 
 know that she went without some things she 
 wanted, so she could give it to me. If you think 
 that, after all that, just as soon as I get here and 
 get hold of something a little finer, I'm going to 
 do it up in a bundle and send it back to her and 
 tell her it's not good enough to wear, why, you're 
 very much mistaken, and you may as well know 
 it first as last." 
 
 Burning with anger, with injured pride and 
 with loyalty to her mother, Ursula had neglected 
 to take into account the open door and her own 
 rising voice. Still facing the mirror, she raised 
 her eyes to see, over her own shoulder, the gen- 
 tle, anxious face of her father side by side with 
 her angry one. 
 
 " Ursula ! " he said quietly. And then, " Ur- 
 sula, I think you would better pick up your hat 
 and coat, and carry them into your own room."
 
 40 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 CHAPTEK FOUR 
 
 "T3UT why not, I should like to know?" 
 
 -I J Ursula demanded. 
 
 " Because I don't care to," John Myers replied 
 primly. 
 
 " But why don't you care ? " Ursula persisted. 
 
 "I don't know. I suppose because it makes 
 you get all heated up and untidy." 
 
 Ursula's step lost its rhythmic beat, as she eyed 
 her young cousin askance. 
 
 " And you call yourself a boy ? " The accent 
 was provokingly deliberate. 
 
 " Of course. Why not ? " 
 
 "Because you aren't. You're nothing but an 
 old maid. The idea of not liking baseball ! It's 
 such fun ! " 
 
 " How do you know ? " 
 
 "For the simple reason that I used to play 
 with my little brothers and their friends, when 
 there weren't enough boys. You ought to see 
 some of the strikes I've made ! " Ursula swung 
 an imaginary bat in a swift, sure arc before her. 
 
 John glanced apprehensively over his shoulder.
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 41 
 
 "Won't won't you drop your parcel?" he 
 asked suggestively. 
 
 My ? Oh, my bundle ? Well, what of 
 
 it? I can pick it up again," she responded in 
 blithe unconsciousness of the shivers which were 
 coursing up and down the decorous spine of her 
 cousin. " And the sliding bases ! " 
 
 If she expected her cousin to smile in sym- 
 pathy with her own jolly laugh, she was disap- 
 pointed. Instead, he merely inquired, 
 
 " And did your mother let you ? " 
 
 " I never asked her ; I just did it," Ursula re- 
 turned tranquilly. " She wouldn't have minded, 
 though ; only once, when I tried to make a base, 
 and tore out all the front of my skirt on a snaggy 
 rock, she made me mend it, myself." 
 
 " Don't you like to sew ? " 
 
 The vehemence of her answer nearly took his 
 breath away. 
 
 " No ; I hate it." Then she laughed. " But 
 she didn't ask me, any more than I asked her if I 
 might play ball. I had torn it, and she said I 
 must mend it. I'm sure that was fair enough. 
 The worst of it was, the gown was faded, and I 
 only had some new cloth to mend it with, so, all 
 that year, I had to wear the skirt with a great 
 patch of another color, all over the front 
 breadth."
 
 42 URSULAS FEESHMAN 
 
 This was within the limits of John's under- 
 standing, and he said sympathetically, 
 
 " "Why didn't you get another dress ? " 
 
 Ursula flushed; then she shrugged ii3r 
 shoulders. 
 
 " Where I came from, new clothes don't grow 
 on bushes." 
 
 " They don't here. I wish they did, and I'd 
 go out picking, every morning. But you're the 
 first girl I ever heard of that played ball." 
 
 " And you are the first boy I ever heard of 
 that didn't," she retorted. 
 
 There was a scornful cadence to the words, 
 and it exasperated him. 
 
 " I don't see that there's any reason I should," 
 he said morosely. "I just don't care for it; 
 that's all." 
 
 " What do you care for ? " 
 
 "Books." 
 
 " To read, or to study ? " 
 
 "Both." 
 
 "Honestly?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 She looked at him for a minute ; then she 
 lifted her chin and puckered her lips, as if to 
 crowd her laugh back into her swelling cheeks. 
 At last it Lurst out, hearty and ringing. 
 
 " Oh, don't ! " John protested hastily.
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 43 
 
 " Don't what ? " 
 
 "Don't be so noisy on the street. Mother 
 wouldn't like it at all." 
 
 Ursula's step lagged again as, with dimpling 
 cheeks and mocking eyes, she surveyed her cousin. 
 
 " I said you were an old maid ; but that wasn't 
 nearly strong enough. You're a mummy." 
 
 " I don't think you're very polite," he returned. 
 " Next time, I won't invite you to go to walk 
 with me." 
 
 " You didn't, this time. I invited myself," she 
 replied composedly. 
 
 Even the patience of a mummy has its limits, 
 and John's bad temper was refreshingly boylike 
 and normal, as he snapped, 
 
 "Well, I didn't want you, and I wish you 
 hadn't come." 
 
 Without moving her head, she turned her brown 
 eyes towards his determined profile. 
 
 "Truthfully, Jackie?" 
 
 " You bet I do ! " 
 
 The answer was scarcely that of conventional 
 courtesy ; yet Ursula liked the lapse from de- 
 corum. Nevertheless, she felt that he needed a 
 rebuke, and she gave it to him in one of his own 
 favorite phrases. 
 
 " Oh, John, you shouldn't. You know Aunt 
 Ursula wouldn't like you to say you bet."
 
 44 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 Her irony escaped him. 
 
 " Maybe she wouldn't," he muttered ; " but 
 you're enough to make a saint swear." 
 
 For the moment, Ursula's amusement led her 
 to forget her role of injured propriety, and she 
 answered promptly, 
 
 " Then you're no saint, for let certainly isn't 
 swearing." 
 
 John opened his lips ; then prudently he re- 
 frained from uttering the thoughts that moved 
 him. They walked on in silence, he determined, 
 she amused. At the end of the second block, she 
 glanced at him furtively, then edged a trifle 
 nearer to his side. Her eyes were gleaming; 
 but her accent was pathetic. 
 
 " You aren't going to be cross to me ; are you, 
 Cousin Jackie ? " 
 
 As a matter of principle, John disapproved of 
 Ursula ; nevertheless, for some inscrutable cause, 
 he liked to hear her call him Jackie, perhaps be- 
 cause it was the first time in his life that he had 
 ever been called anything but respectable, formal 
 John. Moreover, he was dimly aware that, in 
 spite of her idiosyncrasies, his young cousin was 
 fast becoming a most presentable young person, 
 and that she added a flavor of piquancy to the 
 humdrum decorum of their family life. 
 
 It was five weeks, now, since Ursula had seen,
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 45 
 
 through tear-dim eyes, her father's train move 
 away from the station at Forty-Second Street. 
 She had come out of the station, not caring espe- 
 cially whether she found her way into her aunt's 
 carriage or into the nearest subway excavation. 
 She was alone, stranded, unhappy. Nothing 
 mattered much now. For two or three daj^s, the 
 transplanted life drooped visibly. Then Ursula's 
 temperament and training reasserted themselves. 
 Sulking in corners never did any good. She 
 would shut her teeth and make the best of things. 
 Nevertheless, the quaint, gossipful letters she 
 sent home were blistered and blotted here and 
 there, though not a word of discontent came 
 from her pen. Ursula had seen with her own 
 eyes that her father would be hurt by any criti- 
 cism of his lady sister whose patronizing attitude 
 towards himself he was too simple-hearted to 
 understand. 
 
 Ursula, for her part, was shrewd ; moreover, 
 she was free from all preconceived notions. She 
 weighed the Myers family in the same balance 
 she would have used for any strangers. She de- 
 cided that Mr. Myers was as futile in his domestic 
 relations as he was successful in the business 
 world. Mrs. Myers was more of a problem, for 
 she was strong of character, and her standards 
 were unlike any with which the girl had ever be-
 
 46 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 fore come in contact. She was uniformly kind 
 and generous, lax of discipline, and critical of all 
 points of manner and speech. But, to Ursula's 
 mind, John Myers was a constant source of fun, 
 and she made the most of him. 
 
 Of course, he resented her teasing ; of course, 
 he rebelled, when she waved aside his pompous 
 young opinions. He thought her bumptious and 
 intolerable ; nevertheless, he took the same pleas- 
 ure in her society that one gets from biting ten- 
 tatively upon an aching tooth. On one occasion, 
 he had criticized her until she had taken venge- 
 ance by ignoring his existence for some days. 
 He was careful never to repeat the experiment. 
 Now, accordingly, he yielded to her cajolery. 
 
 " Not if you behave yourself." 
 
 " I will be good," she said meekly. " It's such 
 a bother to keep fighting, all the time, and you're 
 the only person I know in New York." 
 
 " What about my father and mother ? " he 
 asked literally. 
 
 "Oh, I mean person young enough to fight 
 with. And there's no variety in fighting with 
 you ; you always go at it in just the same way. 
 Why, at home Irving was only twelve, and I 
 could get lots more bites out of him than I can 
 out of you. You're like a cow with only one 
 horn."
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 47 
 
 Ursula's metaphor was neither unmixed nor 
 complimentary, and it nettled her companion. 
 She chose to disregard his annoyance, however, 
 and she nonchalantly changed the subject. 
 
 " Who is Nathalie Arterburn ? " 
 
 " Why ? " 
 
 " Your mother is everlastingly quoting her, and 
 I get so tired of her that I'd like never to hear 
 her name again. 1 ' 
 
 " There are others," John observed dryly. 
 
 " Who is she, anyway ? " 
 
 " She is a girl from the country " 
 
 " Just like me," Ursula interpolated ; " so you 
 needn't take that top-lof tical tone, when you talk 
 to me about her." 
 
 John shut his mouth tightly, resolving that 
 wild horses should not drag it open again. 
 
 " Well, go on," Ursula commanded. 
 
 "I thought you didn't like what I was say- 
 ing." 
 
 " I didn't like the way you were saying it ; but 
 that's no reason you should turn into an oyster. 
 She is a girl from the country - 
 
 " That the Gifford Barretts took up, a year or 
 so ago." 
 
 " Who are the Gifford Barretts ? " 
 
 " Great swells, who live on the top of things." 
 
 " Friends of yours ? " she asked shrewdly.
 
 48 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 " N-not exactly." 
 
 " But I thought you were on the top of things," 
 Ursula said a little mercilessly. 
 
 " So we are. We know the Barretts, of course, 
 only we aren't at all intimate." 
 
 "Hm! But I suppose you'd like to be. Is 
 that it ? " 
 
 " I don't care about it. Kingsley Barrett, that 
 is, Kex, is a perfect dunce." 
 
 " Then what makes Aunt Ursula want you to 
 know him, when you get into Yale ? " 
 
 " I don't know." His accent was that of utter 
 indifference. 
 
 " To hear her talk, you'd think he was the only 
 boy in this city," Ursula commented reflectively. 
 " And I do get tired of hearing about this Nathalie 
 Arterburn. Is she nice ? " 
 
 " I've never spoken to her. She and Rex are 
 great cronies, and she was abroad with the Bar- 
 retts, last year. Mr. Barrett is a composer." 
 
 "I wasn't asking about the Barretts. I 
 was asking about Nathalie Arterburn. Is she 
 pretty ? " 
 
 " Stunning ! " Again the inherent boyishness 
 came uppermost, and again Ursula approved of 
 her cousin. 
 
 " How old is she ? " 
 
 " Seventeen or eighteen, I should say."
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 49 
 
 " Does Aunt Ursula know her ? " 
 
 "No; but I suppose she knows the brother. 
 He was named for ray father." 
 
 The idea caught Ursula's fancy, and she 
 laughed. 
 
 " He was named for Uncle Henry, and I was 
 named for Aunt Ursula. What relation does 
 that make him to me, I wonder ? " 
 
 Once more John turned literal. 
 
 " He is no relation. His father and mine went 
 to school together at Exeter." 
 
 " I know that," Ursula said impatiently ; " but, 
 if he is named for a man, and I am named for 
 that man's wife, there must be some sort of a 
 relationship between us. Here we are at the 
 Art Museum. Let's come in and take a look at 
 your friends, the other mummies." 
 
 John demurred ; but Ursula had her way. 
 Her innate love of the beautiful, starved for 
 fifteen years, had already learned to feast upon 
 the contents of the Museum, and she snatched a 
 half-hour there, whenever she chanced to be in 
 its vicinity. Once inside the turnstiles, she 
 wandered about, according to the whim of the 
 moment, now poring over the cases of antique 
 lace, now delighting in the Oriental potteries, 
 now strolling along the galleries of paintings, 
 exulting in the wondrous colors with a catholic
 
 50 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 s L_ 
 
 joy which embraced all things from Raphael to 
 Monet, from Yan Dyck to Meissonier. To-day, 
 however, she steadfastly turned her back upon 
 these temptations, and with unerring step led 
 the way to the hall where the mummies repose 
 beneath their shining glass. Beside a portly 
 Barneses, she paused and beckoned her com- 
 panion to her side. 
 
 " Now, John, come and see your friend. He 
 is very respectable, almost as respectable as you 
 are. He doesn't look as if he had ever been 
 shocked in his life, and yet his knees are a little 
 bit baggy. Yours wouldn't be, if you were in a 
 glass case." 
 
 " Oh, keep still ! " John protested. " You 
 aren't funny, Ursula, so what is the use of think- 
 ing you are ? He is dead, and it's horrid to make 
 fun of him." 
 
 She felt the rebuke more than he had in- 
 tended, and she flushed hotly. Then she 
 laughed. 
 
 " I'm wasting all my sermon on you, Jackie ; 
 but you'd better take it to heart. No matter 
 how precise and respectable you are, there'll be 
 a wrinkle somewhere or other. But, if you 
 don't love the mummies, let's go up into the 
 Franklin room and look at Fifth Cousin Ben's 
 picture on the plates."
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 51 
 
 With more gentleness than was her wont, she 
 moved off at her cousin's side. The two young 
 people never looked better than when they were 
 together. Totally unlike, each acted as foil to 
 the other, the boy a tall, pale blond, heavy -lidded 
 and with the appearance of almost aggressive re- 
 finement of face and bearing, the girl slender 
 and brown and dainty, her step alert, her eyes 
 flashing with merriment. John's calmness 
 amounted to languor ; Ursula was an embodied 
 tempest. They were bound to strike fire con- 
 tinually ; but, as a rule, the sparks died out upon 
 the air, and through constant friction they were 
 slowly working their way down to a basis of 
 good understanding, of mutual tolerance. Five 
 weeks before, Ursula would not have accepted 
 her cousin's rebuke. The weeks had taught her 
 that his faults were largely faults of training, 
 that at heart the boy was of good material. 
 
 As they passed along through gallery after 
 gallery, loitering here, halting there, Ursula 
 caught sight of a young girl standing before a 
 row of Dutch paintings. At first Ursula's eyes, 
 attracted by the fluffy golden hair which stood 
 out in sharp contrast to the dull background, 
 rested upon her indifferently. Then, as the girl 
 turned her face in the direction of their echoing 
 steps, their eyes met, and Ursula gave a half
 
 52 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 smile of recognition. It was the girl she had 
 seen in the street car, dressed now in green from 
 head to foot, yet unmistakably the girl in the 
 blue skirt, and, to Ursula's eyes, looking as 
 comely and happy and altogether attractive as 
 ever. 
 
 At Ursula's start of recognition, she slightly 
 raised her yellow brows in surprise, and turned 
 away. It was impossible that in the brown- 
 gowned girl, as dainty and trim as herself, she 
 could recognize the bunchy child whose hideous 
 clothing had roused both her repulsion and her 
 
 Pity- 
 Ursula's face had fallen, and she dejectedly 
 
 followed her cousin out of the gallery. There 
 was no especial reason that the girl should have 
 recognized her ; yet Ursula, loyal to the memory 
 of that yellow hair, would have given much for 
 the sake of a smile in answer to her own. 
 Vaguely disappointed, she was silent for a time. 
 Then, as they turned to leave the Franklin room, 
 she broke the silence. 
 
 " Did you notice that girl we passed ? " 
 
 "Which girl?" 
 
 " The one in green, with yellow hair." 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Who is she ? " 
 
 " How should I know ? "
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 53 
 
 She saw he was bent upon teasing her, and her 
 reiterated question was a little impatient. 
 
 "You do know. Who is she, Jack ? " 
 
 " What makes you want to know ? " 
 
 "Because I've seen her before." 
 
 " Where ? " 
 
 " In a New Haven street car, the day before I 
 came here. I should know her again in Egypt." 
 
 " Don't be too sure. You may not strike 
 Egypt, the same season." 
 
 " Do stop teasing," she begged him. " Who is 
 she, Jack ? " 
 
 " She is Nathalie Arterburn." 
 
 " Oh-h ! " It was a long-drawn syllable. " Why 
 didn't you tell me ? " 
 
 John smiled down on her patronizingly. 
 
 " Because you had just said you were so tired 
 of her that you never wanted to hear her name 
 again."
 
 54 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 CHAPTER FIYE 
 
 IN one of the smallest apartments to be found 
 in the city of New York, Harry Arterburn 
 sat frowning into his coffee cup. From across 
 the table his sister watched him, half in anxiety, 
 half in amusement. 
 
 " How often must I tell you, Hal," she said at 
 length ; " that it is extremely unbecoming to you 
 to scowl so ? I do wish you would relieve my 
 feelings by telling me which is bad, your coffee 
 or your correspondence." 
 
 His face cleared a little, as it never failed to 
 do at his sister's bidding. 
 
 "It's this confounded letter. I don't know 
 what to do about it," he answered. 
 
 " What is it ? " 
 
 He tossed it across the table with such un- 
 erring aim that it fell exactly into her saucer of 
 oatmeal. She picked it up, dripping, and pointed 
 rebukingly to the milky crest on the flap of the 
 envelope. 
 
 "How can you have so little respect for 
 aristocracy, Harry? This ought to be handed
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 55 
 
 about on a silver salver by a man in but- 
 tons." 
 
 " What shall we do about it, Nathalie ? " 
 
 His tone showed that he was really disturbed, 
 and without more ado she opened the letter in 
 her hand. She read it from end to end. Then 
 she raised her eyes to his. 
 
 " What shall we do ? " he repeated. 
 
 " Don't," she advised him quietly. 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 Her reply came promptly. 
 
 " Better is a dinner of Bent biscuit and sage 
 cheese where independence is, than peacocks and 
 cream with Mrs. Myers." 
 
 " Then you think ? " 
 
 " That, as Kex says, it's up to her. When we 
 first came here, she never came near us. I don't 
 know that I care to go to her now." 
 
 Harry Arterburn's laugh cleared the frown 
 from his face and showed him for what he really 
 was, an uncommonly attractive man of the later 
 twenties. 
 
 " No especial use in getting spunky about it, 
 chum," he admonished her. 
 
 " Of course not. She isn't worth the trouble. 
 Still, she might have helped us a good deal, two 
 years ago." 
 
 " She did get the apartment for us."
 
 56 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 " Yes ; but she never came near it, when once 
 we were inside it. Before I knew Mrs. Bar- 
 rett, I should have been so glad to know her. 
 Wow I don't care." 
 
 Harry stirred his coffee thoughtfully. 
 
 " I'm not so sure she could have helped us," he 
 said slowly. 
 
 " Mrs. Barrett did." 
 
 " Mrs. Barrett could ; she is more human. But, 
 from all I hear, I don't believe Mrs. Myers be- 
 longs to our kind of people." 
 
 " I should hope not," Nathalie said flatly. " I 
 never saw her but once, and that was from afar ; 
 but then she seemed to me to be nothing but 
 clothes and manners. Both were exquisite ; 
 but they wouldn't be very filling for a steady 
 diet." 
 
 " But we aren't asked to eat her clothes, or 
 even her manners. It is a dinner we are talking 
 about," her brother suggested. 
 
 " What do you think about it, Harry ? " 
 
 " I don't quite know. Mr. Myers was an old 
 chum of father's, and, for his sake, I don't want 
 to be rude." 
 
 Nathalie bent forward, clasped her hands 
 above her plate and rested her chin upon them. 
 
 "Oh, Hal, why did you ever happen to have 
 such a colossal conscience ? " she said regretfully.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 57 
 
 " If you put it on that ground, I suppose we shall 
 have to go. For my part, though, I'd rather 
 starve." 
 
 Behind his glasses, Harry Arterburn's blue 
 eyes twinkled mischievously. 
 
 " Possibly she intends it as a welcome home, 
 chum." 
 
 "If she does, it's a trifle belated," Nathalie 
 retorted, while she gave him his second cup of 
 coffee. Then she referred to the letter which 
 still lay open before her. " What do you suppose 
 she means by her especial reason for wishing to 
 see you ? " 
 
 " It passes my comprehension. Then shall I 
 write her that we will go ? " 
 
 "Yes, I suppose so; but you might add a 
 postscript that it is usually polite to call first." 
 
 "She probably regards you as too young to 
 receive calls," Harry suggested unkindly. 
 
 "Then I am too young to go out to dinner. 
 That's a good idea, Hal. You can put me to by- 
 low, before you start." 
 
 " No need. She expressly states that it will be 
 early, and with no other guests." He rose from 
 the table. " Shall I order anything, to-day, 
 Nathalie ? " 
 
 " No. We've plenty of everything for the 
 present."
 
 58 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 He looked at her admiringly. 
 
 " How do you make things last so long, 
 Nathalie ? " 
 
 "Ask Mrs. Barrett. She taught me to plan. 
 I want to be thrifty ; it is the only condition that 
 let me come back here. Do I really add so very 
 much to your bills, Hal ? " 
 
 " No. Even if you did, though, I couldn't get 
 on without you. Who else would poke the fire 
 with me, and gossip at bedtime ? " 
 
 "Nobody, if I could get here. But, 
 Harry " She hesitated a little. 
 
 " Well, dear ? " 
 
 " Do you find it so very hard to get on with- 
 out the Rex money ? " she asked anxiously. " I 
 know you miss it. Can you get through without 
 it?" 
 
 He nodded reassuringly. 
 
 " We were inside our allowance, last month. 
 It wasn't much, to be sure ; but it was inside. 
 Of course I should like it, if I could get another 
 pupil. I have all my mornings free, and I might 
 just as well give some of my spare time to teach- 
 ing." 
 
 " If you don't work too hard. But it is early 
 in the season, and there is plenty of time yet for 
 you to hear of somebody who needs cramming," 
 she returned, with the cheery optimism which
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 59 
 
 made her such a tonic to her less hopeful 
 brother. 
 
 Now he smiled at her across the dismantled 
 table. 
 
 " You are a comfort, chum," he said heartily. 
 
 Left to herself, Nathalie began to gather up 
 the cups, preparatory to her dish- washing. 
 There was an attractive daintiness about the 
 way in which she handled the silver and china, 
 and even the dishpan and the long, soft towels. 
 It showed that the girl was a born housekeeper ; 
 and she went about her homely task with appar- 
 ent enjoyment. The fact was that Nathalie 
 Arterburn had never outgrown her childish love 
 of a baby-house, and, to her mind, this wee apart- 
 ment was nothing more nor less than a baby- 
 house on an exaggerated scale, her life with her 
 brother only a prolonged play-day. 
 
 Left an orphan in her childhood, she had been 
 sent to her father's sister in Maine, until such 
 time as her older brother could finish his study 
 in Germany, and come back to America to make 
 a home for his young brothers and sisters. As 
 Nathalie had said, that morning, Harry Arter- 
 burn owned a conscience ; and he had come to 
 New York, just two years before, fully resolved 
 to fulfil the expressed wish of his father, that 
 the little family should be held together. The
 
 60 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 children were young and not too ready to yield 
 obedience to the brother whose eight years of 
 college and university life had left him almost a 
 stranger to them. His salary as instructor at 
 the university, even eked out by the slight in- 
 come from his father's estate and by his tutor- 
 ship to Rex Barrett, had been sorely strained by 
 the demands of city rents and markets ; and the 
 boy of twenty-six had all but broken down under 
 the load. Two tonics had upheld him : the loyal 
 love of Nathalie whose girlish ideals centered in 
 her new-found brother, and the generous friend- 
 ship of the Barretts and their kin. 
 
 It was Mrs. Barrett who had taken them oil 
 to Quantuck, the summer before they went 
 abroad ; it was Mr. Barrett who had asked both 
 Arterburns to go to Europe with them, and it 
 was Mrs. Barrett's nephew who had influence in 
 such high places that Harry Arterburn had been 
 given leave of absence for ten months of foreign 
 study. The trip had been one long dream of de- 
 light to both brother and sister, and Mrs. Barrett 
 had forestalled any anxiety for the future, which 
 might have hurried the awakening. It was by 
 her advice that the three younger children were 
 allowed to remain in Vermont with the old 
 cousin who had been Harry's housekeeper, the 
 winter before. The country life was as much
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 61 
 
 more wholesome for them, as it was less expen- 
 sive ; Cousin Eudora Evelina was a good cook 
 and, left to herself, an excellent disciplinarian ; 
 and Harry, after one last tussle with his con- 
 science, yielded to a plan which was so obviously 
 an improvement upon the one which he had 
 attempted to put into operation. From the first, 
 there was no question of separating Harry and 
 Nathalie. Parted, they would have been as use- 
 ful as the separate blades of a pair of scissors ; 
 each would rust for want of the other. Accord- 
 ingly, early October had found them settled in 
 their tiny new apartment, with Mrs. Barrett 
 within easy reach, to serve as adviser or chap- 
 eron in case of need. 
 
 Over her five little rooms, Nathalie reigned 
 supreme as hostess, cook and housemaid. She 
 had thrown herself into her new routine with a 
 zeal which had seemed to Mrs. Barrett too great 
 to be lasting ; but, as week after week went by, 
 Nathalie's pleasure and pride in her housekeep- 
 ing showed no signs of waning. The simple 
 meals were prompt and daintily served; and 
 Nathalie worked all the flour off her moulding 
 board and clarified her kettle of fat as thriftily 
 as her own grandmother might have done. 
 
 As a matter of necessity, they breakfasted 
 chiefly upon cereals, and their soup and pudding
 
 62 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 rarely occurred upon the same day. However, 
 granted that the cereal is just salt enough, and 
 the beefsteak and potatoes done to a turn and 
 scalding hot, one is bound not to starve. For 
 the rest, Nathalie saw to it that her linen was 
 spotless, that the middle of her table was never 
 empty of its posy, and that domestic worries, no 
 matter how insistent, should have no place in 
 their table-talk. What wonder that Harry, as 
 he seated himself opposite her bright face, should 
 have preferred his home table to the ambrosia of 
 Olympus ? Moreover, no matter what happened 
 earlier in the da} T , there was one custom which 
 never changed. That was the good-night talk 
 beside the dying fire. 
 
 People, looking on, pitied the brother and sis- 
 ter for their lives of scrimping and of hard work ; 
 but Nathalie and Harry Arterburn needed no 
 pity. They had learned the important secret of 
 how to be happy upon nothing particular a 
 year. 
 
 That same night at dinner, Mrs. Myers glanced 
 up from her salad. 
 
 " I had a letter from Mr. Arterburn, to-day, 
 Ursula." 
 
 " Who is he ? " Ursula asked indifferently. 
 
 " He is Nathalie Arterburn's brother." 
 
 In the depths of Ursula's brown eyes there
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 63 
 
 came a spark of merriment; but it failed to 
 catch the attention of her aunt. 
 
 " Who is she ? " 
 
 Mrs. Myers fell into the trap. 
 
 " She ? I have told you about her, Ursula. 
 She is the young girl that Mrs. Gifford Barrett 
 took abroad, last year." 
 
 Ursula had a naughty desire to continue the 
 conversation by asking who was Mrs. Gifford 
 Barrett ; but she prudently reflected that her 
 aunt was scarcely a legitimate object of her teas- 
 ing, so she merely said, 
 
 " I remember now." 
 
 Then she went on with her dinner. 
 
 Mrs. Myers felt herself becoming piqued. She 
 had not expected to have her great news received 
 so indifferently. 
 
 "But you don't ask me what he said," she 
 continued, after a pause. 
 
 It was a plain statement of an indubitable 
 fact, and neither John nor Ursula felt called 
 upon to deny it. 
 
 There was another pause. Then Mrs. Myers 
 made her announcement which all of a sudden 
 seemed rather tame. 
 
 " They are coming to dinner, next Thursday." 
 
 " Oh, bother ! " Ursula said explosively. 
 
 " Ursula ! " her aunt remonstrated.
 
 64 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 " Well, I can't help it. John had promised to 
 take me up to Bronx Park, that afternoon." 
 
 " But I have asked them partly on your ac- 
 count, Ursula. Besides, bother is a very coarse 
 word." 
 
 Ursula flushed scarlet. Until she came to 
 New York, she had never been accused of coarse- 
 ness, and now the accusation hurt her. 
 
 " I'm sorry. I won't say it again," she said 
 shortly. " But I thought you didn't know the 
 Arterburns." 
 
 The shot, though unintentional, went home, 
 and Mrs. Myers reddened. Then she began to 
 defend herself. 
 
 " I don't know them ; but it is high time that 
 I did, for Mr. Arterburn is named for your 
 Uncle Henry. I fully intended to call on them, 
 when they first came to New York; but I never 
 seemed to get to it. Now that I have an adopted 
 daughter," she looked down at Ursula with the 
 little smile which now and then softened her 
 face ; " now that you are here with us, it seems 
 an especially good chance to get acquainted with 
 Nathalie." 
 
 Ursula saw the smile ; but she hardened her 
 obstreperous young heart. Upon more than one 
 occasion since her coming to New York, her aunt 
 had shown herself to be very worldly, and Ursula
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 65 
 
 shrewdly suspected that this was some new phase 
 of her worldliness. She was too young to see 
 deeply into things, and she failed to realize that, 
 like John's priggishness, her aunt's ambition was 
 only skin deep, that it covered a truly kind heart, 
 and that, even yet, it might yield to the woman- 
 liness hidden underneath. 
 
 Meanwhile, Mr. Myers had roused himself 
 from the abstraction in which he usually wrapped 
 himself at meal-times. 
 
 " Did you say something about Arterburn ? " 
 he inquired. 
 
 " Yes. I have asked him and his sister to dine 
 here, next Thursday." 
 
 Her husband looked at her keenly. 
 
 " They won't come." 
 
 " What makes you think so ? " 
 
 " The Arterburns are a proud race, and you 
 have never called on them." 
 
 Once more she defended herself. 
 
 " But I hunted cheap apartments for them, all 
 over Harlem." 
 
 " Yes, and it was a bore, I know. You saved 
 me a good deal of care, Ursula ; and I appre- 
 ciated it. But I did hope you would call." 
 
 " On that old Panjandrum of a cousin ? " she 
 asked, as, in spite of herself, she laughed at the idea. 
 
 " No ; on them all, just to see that they were
 
 66 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 comfortable. It would have been neighborly, 
 and their father was my schoolboy chum," her 
 husband answered, with a sudden wave of loyalty 
 for his old-time mate. 
 
 Again his wife's face softened. Though she 
 was the dominant spirit in the home, she was in- 
 tensely fond of her dapper little husband. 
 
 " I am sorry, dear. I didn't know you cared 
 so much. But it may not be too late now for 
 me to redeem my reputation. Mr. Arterburn 
 has accepted my invitation." 
 
 " I am glad of it." Mr. Myers spoke with un- 
 wonted heartiness. " I was afraid they would 
 stand on ceremony, and I shall like to have Jack 
 Arterburn's children in my home." 
 
 Ursula looked up with sudden interest. 
 
 " Was that where John got his name ? " she 
 asked eagerly. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 She turned to John. 
 
 " How funny that you never told me ! " she 
 exclaimed. 
 
 "I never knew it, myself, till now," he an- 
 swered. 
 
 Ursula laid down her fork and folded her 
 hands. 
 
 " Well ! " she said deliberately. " If this isn't 
 a situation ! "
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 67 
 
 CHAPTEK SIX 
 
 " \XP IEREFOKE this elegance ?" Mrs. Bar- 
 VV rett demanded, as she entered the 
 Arterburn apartment, a few days later. 
 
 Nathalie stepped into the middle of the floor, 
 and slowly revolved before the eyes of her guest. 
 
 " "What do you think of my new clothes ? " she 
 asked complacently. 
 
 Mrs. Barrett stared approvingly at the dull 
 rose-colored gown, relieved here and there with 
 touches of black and white. 
 
 "It is perfect. I congratulate you on your 
 dressmaker. But aren't you getting extrava- 
 gant ? " 
 
 Nathalie laughed. 
 
 " Extravagance is a sin, Mrs. Barrett, and I am 
 never sinful. This cloth was a bargain-counter 
 remnant, and it cost the whole sum of twenty- 
 nine cents a yard. I never could have afforded 
 it at thirty, you know. It was a tight fit to get 
 it out, and every particle of trimming covers a 
 piecing. The velvet came from my blue gown, 
 and the white is a fragment of Peggy's old sash."
 
 68 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 Mrs. Barrett shook her head. 
 
 " Don't tell it abroad, Nathalie ; it would be 
 like a cook's analyzing a soup. It always spoils 
 my relish to hear of the individual carrots and 
 turnips. It is the same with your gown ; it is 
 positively Parisian, so who cares from what rag- 
 bag you culled the fragments ? " 
 
 " I am so glad you like it," the girl said, with 
 honest pride in her achievement. "It is simple ; 
 but I truly think it is rather becoming." 
 
 " It's not so simple. You look as if you were 
 dressed for a dinner party, at the very least." 
 
 " So I am," Nathalie answered blandly. 
 
 " Where, I should like to know ; and how 
 dare you accept invitations without your lawful 
 chaperon ? " 
 
 Nathalie made a little grimace of disgust. 
 
 "I was perfectly convinced that my lawful 
 chaperon wouldn't care for the honor of even 
 being invited." 
 
 " What is it, Nathalie ? " Mrs. Barrett looked 
 a little disturbed. 
 
 The girl's eyes danced with merriment, as she 
 replied demurely, 
 
 " I am going to dine with Mrs. Henry Myers." 
 
 " Nathalie Arterburn ! " Mrs. Barrett's back 
 stiffened, as she spoke, and the angle of her chin 
 went up by at least thirty degrees.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 69 
 
 " Yes, ma'am." 
 
 " What for ? " Mrs. Barrett asked explosively. 
 
 " Because she invited us." 
 
 " Suppose she did ? " Mrs. Barrett demanded, 
 in a second explosion. 
 
 Nathalie laughed. Then, regardless of her 
 gown, she dropped on the floor at Mrs. Barrett's 
 feet, and nestled against her side. 
 
 " You see, it's this way," she said confi- 
 dentially ; " she wrote to Harry and invited us, 
 almost a week ago. I was down on the idea of 
 going ; but Harry has some sort of a crotchet in 
 his dear old brain about Mr. Myers's being a 
 friend of our father, and all that. It seems to 
 me it has outlawed, by this time ; but you know 
 Hal. He lives just to carry out papa's wishes. 
 1 admire him for it ; but this is one of the times 
 when I think he overdoes the matter. I don't 
 want to go, Mrs. Barrett; but Hal would do 
 almost anything in the world for me, and once 
 in a while it is only fair I should give in to 
 him." 
 
 Mrs. Barrett bent over to change the shape of 
 the bow in Nathalie's hair. Then she gave the 
 hair an approving pat. 
 
 " I think you are perfectly right, Nathalie. 
 Personally, I'd like to abolish the woman ; but I 
 know I'm not fair to her. There is nothing bad
 
 70 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 about her ; it is only that she hasn't learned to 
 stand down on her heels, socially speaking." 
 
 "I really don't see why she should ask us 
 now, though," Nathalie said reflectively. " Do 
 you suppose it has taken her two whole years to 
 decide whether we were worth knowing ? " 
 
 " It wouldn't be a bit unlike her," Mrs. Bar- 
 rett answered viciously. " But there may be 
 some reason in it, after all. She has a young 
 niece spending the winter with her." 
 
 A sudden thought dawned upon Nathalie. 
 
 " I wonder if that could be the girl I saw with 
 John Myers, a week or two ago." 
 
 " Possibly. What was she like ? " 
 
 " Brown as a little gipsy, and wonderfully 
 pretty. I stared at her as hard as I dared, for I 
 wondered what sort of a girl would take to Pet- 
 tijohn Myers." 
 
 Mrs. Barrett laughed. 
 
 " Rex must have taught you that name, I 
 know. But I can't fancy his taking to anything 
 so frivolous as a girl, least of all a pretty one. 
 He must have been inspired by a whiff of 
 cousinly duty." 
 
 " He didn't look it. I never saw him appear 
 so alive and human. It was becoming to him, 
 too. Really, he wasn't horrid in the least." 
 
 "That is enthusiastic praise, Nathalie. Per-
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 71 
 
 haps your dinner may not be horrid in the least, 
 either. Here comes Harry, and I must go." 
 She lingered, however, to exchange a cordial 
 greeting with the young man, as he entered. 
 
 " How goes it ? " 
 
 He answered with the equally Teuton idiom, 
 
 "Wholly good." Then he lapsed into New 
 York vernacular. " Everything is flourishing, 
 Mrs. Barrett. I never lived better in my life, 
 and Nathalie and I are as jolly as grigs." 
 
 " What is a grig ? " she challenged him. 
 
 " How should I know ? I never saw one. I 
 always associate them, though, with the Quan- 
 tuck ticks. What do you think of our dinner, 
 to-night ? " 
 
 " I am too astonished to think," she answered 
 bluntly. 
 
 " So am I." Then his laugh died away, and 
 his blue eyes met the guest's eyes steadily. " I 
 don't want to go, Mrs. Barrett; and I know 
 there is no real reason that I should. Still, I 
 have an idea that, if my father were alive, he 
 would tell me I could yield a point now and 
 then, for the sake of old traditions." 
 
 Ursula, meanwhile, was in a state of excite- 
 ment. Her one glimpse of the girl in the blue 
 skirt, as she had mentally dubbed Nathalie Arter- 
 burn, had made a much more vivid impression
 
 72 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 upon her than she had realized at the time. She 
 had thought back to her again and again, and 
 now she could not fail to regard it as an interest- 
 ing experience to meet her again face to face. 
 She was undeniably excited. Moreover, while 
 she was dressing, her excitement seemed to im- 
 part itself to her comb which jerked her long 
 brown hair viciously and then flew out of her 
 hand and across the room to scatter its teeth 
 along the floor. It even extended to the hooks 
 of her gown, which malignly refused to associate 
 themselves with their own eyes, however often 
 she renewed the attempt to conquer them. It 
 assailed her shoe-laces and her string of gold 
 beads. Accordingly, Nathalie's feet were on the 
 front steps, when Ursula, flushed and warm from 
 her exertions, scurried down the stairs and joined 
 her aunt in the parlor. Mrs. Myers surveyed her 
 with a hasty glance which, nevertheless, took in 
 every furbelow and every flaw in her costume. 
 
 " Ye-es, that will do," she commented. " Pull 
 the front of your skirt a very little to the right. 
 Shake out your handkerchief and be sure, if you 
 tuck it into your belt, to tuck it in, corners up. 
 Did you think to put on the stockings with the 
 blue clocks ? " 
 
 With a swift gesture, Ursula pulled up her 
 skirt to show a pair of trim, blue-clocked ankles,
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 73 
 
 and her aunt nodded in reply, as she moved across 
 the room to greet her guests. 
 
 Ursula followed her rather shyly. All at once 
 she felt young and almost shabby in the presence 
 of the good-looking man in his eight-year-old 
 evening clothes, and of the tall girl whose gown 
 had cost nearly one tenth as much as her own. 
 She dismissed with astonishing swiftness her 
 cherished plan of recalling herself to Nathalie's 
 memory, and her cheeks burned hotly at the 
 thought of the mussy roses on her old brown 
 hat. Mrs. Myers, looking on, longed to goad her 
 niece into some sort of presence of mind; but 
 the Arterburns were less critical. They saw no 
 reason that, at fifteen, Ursula Thain should have 
 the social ease of a girl in her second sea- 
 son. 
 
 " I wonder if you were as homesick as I was, 
 after I came to New York," Nathalie said, when 
 the two girls were at last settled down together 
 in a corner, after dinner. 
 
 Ursula cast a hasty glance at her aunt who 
 was fully absorbed in making herself agreeable 
 to Harry Arterburn. Nathalie interpreted the 
 glance, and laughed. 
 
 " Evidently you were. It is to be hoped that 
 you are recovering." 
 
 " Yes." Ursula's tone was a little dubious.
 
 74 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 " It is horrid ; isn't it ? I went through it, my- 
 self." 
 
 " I don't see what made you homesick. You 
 had your family." 
 
 " Sometimes a ready-made family is worse than 
 none," Nathalie replied quaintly. " You feel as 
 if you belonged to them; but you don't know 
 just where you ought to join on. Besides, I was 
 from the country, and very raw." 
 
 " And I was from Iowa ; that's both country 
 and "West, my aunt says," Ursula said rather dep- 
 recatingly. 
 
 But Nathalie objected. 
 
 " I like to be from the country. Just as soon 
 as Harry can afford it, we are going back there, 
 to live on a farm and keep pigs." 
 
 Ursula stared in astonishment at the dainty- 
 looking girl at her side. 
 
 " Miss Arterburn ! " 
 
 "Don't call me Miss Arterburn. I'm just 
 Nathalie. I am only two years older than you 
 are." 
 
 There was a matter-of-fact frankness about the 
 girl which delighted Ursula, and she moved her 
 chair a trifle nearer to the one in which the guest 
 was sitting. 
 
 " All right, if you really want me to. But I 
 was just saying "
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 75 
 
 " About pigs ? " struck in Nathalie. 
 
 " Yes. Did you ever see any ? " 
 
 " See any ! " Nathalie's laugh was so infec- 
 tious that Ursula joined in it. " Why, of course. 
 Didn't you ? " 
 
 Again Ursula glanced furtively at her aunt. 
 Then she lowered her voice. 
 
 " I used to have to feed one at home. But I 
 didn't suppose New York people knew about 
 such things." 
 
 " They don't, unless they go into the country, 
 summers." On her side, Nathalie was strug- 
 gling to connect this pretty, elegantly-clothed 
 child with the accessories of a pig-sty. "We 
 don't have them in the parks, you see," she 
 added vaguely. 
 
 " No ; I suppose not. They aren't very pretty, 
 and they aren't even wild beasts. I used to hate 
 them, when I was at home, and to be ashamed of 
 it, when my mother made me carry the scraps to 
 them; but now, since I have been here," she 
 glanced expressively around the immaculate, 
 cream-colored room ; " since I have been here, 
 I have almost wished I could meet a pig in the 
 street, once in a while. It would seem sort of 
 good to hear him grunt." 
 
 A whole allegory was hidden in the girlish 
 speech ; but Nathalie Arterburn was no dullard.
 
 76 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 " You'll have to come to see me, some day," 
 she said, with a quick wave of liking for the girl 
 beside her. " I housekeep for my brother, and I 
 know you will like to see my funny little pantry. 
 My whole kitchen isn't as large as the pantry in 
 the house where I lived in Chesterton ; but I 
 have great fun in it." 
 
 " Do you ever cook things, yourself ? " 
 
 " Of course I do. There's nobody else to do 
 it." 
 
 Ursula's chair slid a few inches nearer. 
 
 "I can make four sorts of muffins," she ob- 
 served suggestively. 
 
 " Muffins are my weak spot. Come over, some 
 day, to give me a lesson, and then stay to lunch 
 and eat them up, in case they don't turn out well. 
 But, after all, it is great fun to live here. Don't 
 you think so ? " 
 
 " I like it better than I did at first," Ursula 
 answered honestly. " It was dreadful when my 
 father left me, for I had to get acquainted with 
 everybody, and learn all sorts of new ways. 
 And then I missed the children." 
 
 " How many were there ? " 
 
 " Seven." 
 
 " Younger than you ? " 
 
 " Yes. One misses them, you see." 
 
 Nathalie laughed at the pensive tone.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 77 
 
 " I should think it might be a good miss. 
 There are three little ones in our family, and 
 they generally manage to keep the house turned 
 upside down." 
 
 " Then seven ought to turn it clear over and 
 leave it right side up again," Ursula responded 
 loyally. " But I did miss them." 
 
 " Like the pigs ? " Nathalie asked, laughing. 
 
 " Worse, for I didn't have to feed them. But 
 there's John, here." 
 
 " Ye-es." Nathalie's accent was doubtful, as 
 she glanced at the boy who, finding his conversa- 
 tion superfluous, had subsided into a serious- 
 looking book. 
 
 " He really is a great deal nicer than he looks," 
 Ursula reassured her, with a frankness which 
 was rather alarming. To be sure, it was the 
 first time in nearly two months that she had 
 talked to a girl of her own age. In itself, the 
 experience was exhilarating, and from the start 
 she had felt sure of Nathalie's sympathetic lik- 
 ing. " When he gets waked up, he is as lively 
 as anybody." 
 
 Nathalie's thoughts flew seventy miles to th6 
 eastward to Kingsley Barrett, just going home 
 from his glee club rehearsal. 
 
 " Does he wake up often ? " she queried half 
 involuntarily.
 
 78 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 Ursula's brown eyes snapped. 
 
 " You needn't say impolite things about my 
 cousin," she said haughtily. 
 
 "I beg your pardon. I spoke without think- 
 ing," Nathalie answered, in real contrition. 
 
 " You shouldn't be thinking such things, and I 
 like Jack," Ursula went on, with more loyalty 
 than logic. 
 
 From across the room, Mrs. Myers's eye was 
 upon them, and she saw that something was 
 amiss. 
 
 " Ursula, haven't you monopolized Miss Nath- 
 alie quite long enough ? " she inquired, with a 
 warning smile at her niece who had relapsed into 
 a silence closely akin to a fit of the sulks. 
 
 It was Nathalie who rose. In her heart of 
 hearts, she liked and admired this pretty, high- 
 spirited girl who allowed no one but herself to 
 abuse her own relatives. Nevertheless, she was 
 only human, and she could not refrain from the 
 temptation to get in the last word with telling 
 effect. With provoking deliberation, she shook 
 out her rose-colored skirt and brushed from her 
 forehead an imaginary lock of her yellow hair. 
 Then she sauntered across the room and stood 
 resting her arms on the back of her brother's 
 chair. Mrs. Myers looked up at her approvingly. 
 
 " And what have you two children been talk-
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 19 
 
 ing about ? " she asked, in her most caressing 
 tones. 
 
 A sudden naughty light flashed into Nathalie's 
 eyes. 
 
 " Pigs," she answered gently, yet in a voice 
 which could be heard throughout the room. 
 
 The next minute, the hot blood rushed into her 
 cheeks for, from the corner by the drop-light, 
 there fell upon her ears an unmistakable boyish 
 snicker.
 
 80 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 CHAPTEK SEVEN 
 
 AT breakfast, the next morning, Mrs. Myers 
 played the trump card which she had 
 been holding in reserve, ever since she had re- 
 ceived Mr. Thain's letter accepting her invitation 
 to Ursula. For reasons of her own, however, 
 she chose to wait until her husband had left the 
 table. As soon as she heard the click of the 
 front door, she turned to Ursula. 
 
 "Ursula, Mr. Arterburn and I had quite a 
 long talk about you, last night." 
 
 Ursula looked up sharply. Then she feigned 
 indifference, and dropped her eyes to her plate. 
 She had no intention of gratifying her aunt by 
 any manifestation of curiosity, that morning, for, 
 in her girlish heart, her Aunt Ursula was in 
 deep disgrace. It had been most unfair to in- 
 vite the peerless Nathalie Arterburn to dinner, 
 merely for the sake of instituting comparisons 
 between that same Nathalie Arterburn and a 
 certain countrified little girl named Ursula 
 Thain. 
 
 For a long half-hour after the Arterburns
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 81 
 
 had gone away, Ursula had sat listening to these 
 comparisons, while she had twisted her fingers 
 and bitten her lips, that the physical pain might 
 serve as a counter-irritant, and so keep her from 
 showing her resentment. At last, however, she 
 had been able to hold her peace no longer. She 
 had sprung from her chair, with flashing eyes. 
 
 " Suppose I did cross my feet ? So did she ! 
 I saw her! And she bit her bread, too; she 
 took a whole horseshoe out of it. Besides, she is 
 older than I am, and lots and lots prettier, and 
 she has lived here longer, and has been to 
 Europe, besides. There's no reason she shouldn't 
 know about things. There's no reason she 
 should be shy. She doesn't have somebody to 
 peck at her, day in and day out, and fret because 
 she doesn't toe a chalk line, and scold because 
 she talks soprano once in a while. At home, I 
 wasn't shy. I was as good as anybody in town, 
 and I only wish I were back there." 
 
 If Ursula had looked at her aunt, just then, 
 she would have been startled at the pain in Mrs. 
 Myers's face. However, Ursula was staring 
 haughtily over the top of her aunt's head, while 
 she waited for the reply that did not come. 
 Then she turned away, clattered up the stairs to 
 her room and cried herself to sleep. 
 
 She had felt a certain reaction, while she was
 
 82 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 dressing, the next morning. Her aunt was an- 
 noying ; but she was generous and kindly and, 
 if the accounts could be balanced, Ursula already 
 owed her enough in the way of good times and 
 pretty clothes to atone for a steady stream of 
 criticism which should flow from early dawn to 
 dewy eve. In her heart, the girl knew this. 
 Moreover, she was anxious to improve, to win 
 her aunt's full approval ; and this very anxiety 
 made her the more sensitive to her aunt's criti- 
 cism. Homesick as she was still at times, she 
 had no especial wish to go home. Her new life 
 was undeniably easier and more interesting than 
 any she had known till then, and she was 
 pluckily resolved upon staying where she was 
 and seeing the game played out. In her saner 
 moments, she knew that she owed everything to 
 her aunt, even the right to criticize ; nevertheless, 
 it was not in the nature of hot-headed fifteen to 
 accept the criticism and offer no remonstrance. 
 She knotted her hair ribbon defiantly, and went 
 to breakfast, her nose in the air. 
 
 Once at the table, she had found it hard to 
 reconcile the demands of offended dignity and 
 the claims of a healthy appetite. Both had 
 suffered by the time Mr. Myers had gone, and, 
 when John pushed back his chair from the table, 
 she started to follow him.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 83 
 
 " Wait a little, Ursula," Mrs. Myers said 
 quietly. " I want to talk with you." 
 
 Ursula's lips straightened defiantly; but she 
 dared not disobey. She folded her hands and 
 awaited her aunt's pleasure. 
 
 With perfect deliberation, Mrs. Myers finished 
 her breakfast. Then suddenly she turned to her 
 niece. 
 
 " Ursula child, what makes you dislike me ? " 
 
 Ursula gasped at the unexpectedness of the 
 attack. In her place, nine girls out of ten would 
 have denied the dislike ; but Ursula never fibbed. 
 She felt that she was cornered; but that fact, 
 according to her code, could never justify her in 
 an untruth. She hesitated a little; then she 
 answered with perfect honesty, 
 
 "Because I know you don't like me, and, no 
 matter how hard I try, I can't seem to suit you." 
 
 " If I don't like you, what do you think was 
 the reason I invited you to come here ? " Mrs. 
 Myers asked slowly. 
 
 " I don't know. I supposed at first it was be- 
 cause you thought it would be nice to have me 
 here," Ursula answered just as slowly. 
 
 " And so it is." 
 
 " Then you take funny ways of showing it," 
 the girl flashed hotly. 
 
 " How do you mean ? "
 
 84 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 " You never act as if you cared for me, and 
 you don't do a thing but criticize me." 
 
 Her aunt interrupted. 
 
 " Never mind now about the caring for you ; 
 but for whose sake is it that I criticize you ? " 
 
 Ursula carefully erected a tunnel among the 
 ruins on her plate. Then she topped the tunnel 
 with a potato-skin tower. 
 
 " Yours, I suppose," she said a little sulkily, at 
 length. 
 
 " Does your being a polite, well-bred girl make 
 as much difference to me as it does to you ? " 
 
 " Yes, if you have to introduce me to people 
 as your niece." A bread-crust train slid through 
 the tunnel. 
 
 In spite of herself, Mrs. Myers smiled. 
 
 " One is responsible for choosing her friends, 
 not her relatives," she quoted. " Of course, I am 
 glad and proud, when you appear at your best ; 
 but, after all, it makes a good deal more differ- 
 ence to you than it does to me." 
 
 "But if I'm contented, what's the use of 
 fussing ? " Ursula asked gruffly. 
 
 " None. But are you contented ? " 
 
 " I was, till I came here." 
 
 "Always?" 
 
 " Yes. That is," she glanced over her shoulder 
 to assure herself that the maid was still in the
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 85 
 
 room ; " that is, except when I had to feed the 
 pig." 
 
 Mrs. Myers stiffened a little. However, 
 Ursula had not been the one to learn all the 
 lessons of the past few weeks, and Mrs. Myers 
 rallied swiftly. 
 
 "There might be worse things than feeding- 
 pigs, Ursula. Where you lived, everybody had 
 them, and " 
 
 " No," the girl contradicted mutinously ; 
 " there weren't but two in town, ours and 
 Deacon Banister's." 
 
 Mrs. Myers ignored the interruption. 
 
 "It was proper that you should have some 
 duties at home. In such a large family, every- 
 body must help, and somebody must do the dis- 
 agreeables. Here it is different, and your duties 
 are different ; but it is just as much your place 
 to do them." 
 
 "Nobody else ever told me I shirked my 
 duty," Ursula muttered ; " and I don't see how 
 I've shirked it now." 
 
 " It depends upon what you call your duty." 
 
 " Making my own bed, and keeping my room 
 picked up," Ursula answered, with dogged literal- 
 ness. 
 
 " That's only a small part of it, child." There 
 was a little pause ; then Mrs. Myers left her
 
 86 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 place at the head of the table and, taking the 
 chair next Ursula's, rested her hand and arm 
 across the girl's shoulder. " Ursula, what did 
 you come here for ? " she asked gently. 
 
 " Because you sent for me." 
 
 " Was that the only reason ? " 
 
 " No. My father wanted me to come." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " He thought it would be good for me, and he 
 said I would be happy with you." All at once 
 the girl's lip quivered. " He said that you were 
 ever so much like him." 
 
 " And you think I'm not ? " 
 
 All the determination had gone out of Ursula's 
 accent ; it was only dreary, as she amvered, 
 
 "Not the least bit in the world." 
 
 Under some conditions, Mrs. Myers would 
 have been flattered at the statement of utter un- 
 likeness between her dainty self and the shabby 
 Iowa minister. Now, however, she admitted to 
 herself that there might be at least two sets 
 of standards in the world. Mrs. Myers was 
 worldly ; yet she held fast to her own ideals, 
 and her ideals were a good deal more all-round 
 than they generally were supposed to be. During 
 the week he had spent with her, she had been 
 mortified, several times, by the discovery that her 
 simple-minded brother was her superior both in
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 87 
 
 brains and breeding. She had lived in the heart 
 of the world, he in the edge of the wilderness ; 
 nevertheless, she was honest enough to admit to 
 herself that in many ways he was more than her 
 equal. Apparently his daughter had admitted 
 it, too. 
 
 " Ursula," she said, looking straight into the 
 girl's eyes which were glittering defiantly 
 through their tears ; " years ago, your father and 
 I loved each other so dearly that we felt nobody 
 else counted for much. That was in the little 
 house at home, where my girlhood was as simple 
 as yours has been. Then he went away to 
 college, and I was married to your Uncle Henry. 
 Your uncle has been prosperous, and I have been 
 very happy with him. Once in a while, though, 
 I have wished that I had had the chance, when I 
 was a girl, to see a little more of the world. It 
 would have fitted me better for being what I am 
 now, the wife of a very rich man. And it was 
 just on that account that I sent for you to come 
 here." 
 
 " I'm not going to be the wife of a very rich 
 man," Ursula interrupted, as Mrs. Myers paused. 
 " I'm going to teach school, when I grow up." 
 
 " Yery likely. It is too soon to tell. But, no 
 matter what you are, isn't it going to be a help 
 to you to have had this winter in New York, to
 
 88 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 learn to meet people, and talk, and to speak and 
 move like a well-born lady ? " 
 
 " It may help ; but it isn't everything," the 
 girl said shrewdly. 
 
 " No ; I didn't say it was. It helps, though. 
 Didn't you like Nathalie Arterburn ? " 
 
 " Yes." The answer was rather grudging. 
 
 " And wouldn't you like to be like her ? " 
 
 " I couldn't, if I tried. It comes natural to 
 her to be pretty and proper ; it doesn't to me. 
 If I'd been born in New York and educated in 
 Paris, I never could be like her, so what's the use 
 of trying ? If that is what you are after, you 
 might as well give up and send me home, first as 
 last." 
 
 "Ursula, has it ever occurred to you that I 
 like to have you with me ? " 
 
 " I don't see why." 
 
 " Because your father and I were so intimate. 
 We have married and drifted far apart ; but 
 when I saw him, it all came back to me. We 
 can't go back now and be children together ; but 
 he has been willing to lend me his daughter for 
 a little while, and I want to make her happy and 
 contented here. How can I do it ? " 
 
 Ursula met her aunt's eyes squarely. 
 
 " By liking me a little bit." 
 
 "I do like you, child."
 
 89 
 
 " Bj acting, once in a while, as if I suited you, 
 and, when I don't, by giving me the benefit of 
 the doubt, and believing that I am trying to be 
 somewhere near proper. I do try, Aunt Ursula ; 
 but it never seems to do much good. It 
 doesn't come natural to me, as it does to John 
 and to that Nathalie Arterburn. It's all new to 
 me, newer than you have any idea, and I forget 
 one thing while I am remembering another. 
 Then you all look cross-eyed at me, and I get 
 mad. You don't know how mad I get. If I 
 dared spit it out to somebody, it would be some 
 comfort ; but I don't. I hold in and in and in, 
 just as long as I can ; then it all comes out in a 
 lump, and you think I am a great deal worse 
 than I really am. But, Aunt Ursula " 
 
 " Yes ? " 
 
 " It's all so different. I was scolded at home 
 when I needed it, and that was good and often, 
 too. But then, in between the scoldings, my 
 father used to pet me and cuddle me and play 
 with me. That was his way. It isn't yours. I 
 don't believe you ever scolded Jack in his life. 
 Probably he didn't need it; he was born a 
 goody boy. But you never pet him, either. 
 Once in a while you tell him how good he is, just 
 as you told me that I acted all right at dinner, 
 the night the rector was here. But that's not it
 
 90 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 at all. I don't want to be praised ; I just want 
 to be liked a little, and then the scoldings can 
 take care of themselves." 
 
 Hot-tempered, yet pleading, Ursula, as she sat 
 there, was wonderfully like the boy her father 
 had been. The throbbing voice and the blazing 
 eyes so at war with each other were carrying 
 Mrs. Myers backward to her half-forgotten girl- 
 hood. Bending down, she kissed the girl with a 
 sudden wave of affection which was half for 
 Ursula Thain, half for the memory of the boy- 
 hood of Ursula Thain's father. Love can be 
 smothered, but it rarely dies. 
 
 When Ursula and her aunt rose from the table, 
 half an hour later, the lashes of them both were 
 wet, and Ursula's hand was tucked through her 
 aunt's arm just as, weeks before, she had been 
 used to tuck it into the hollow of her father's 
 elbow. Misunderstandings inevitably would arise 
 later on; jarring notes inevitably would be 
 struck. Nevertheless, for the first time in their 
 acquaintance, the woman and the girl had looked 
 down, each into the heart of the other, and each 
 had found the sight true and womanly and sweet. 
 
 " We must let Maggie have the dining-room," 
 Mrs. Myers said at length. " Come into the 
 library, child, and I'll tell you about my new 
 plan for you."
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 91 
 
 But already Harry Arterburn had confided 
 this plan to his sister, and had been hotly 
 opposed. 
 
 " Harry Arterburn, not really ! " she had pro- 
 tested. 
 
 "Really and truly, chum. I thought you 
 would be pleased." 
 
 " She won't fit in with me, and she will spoil 
 all my fun with you, and she'll be a grand 
 nuisance." Nathalie ended with a vigorous 
 climax. 
 
 Harry looked a little disturbed. 
 
 "I am sorry, Nathalie. I never thought of 
 your objecting, and I couldn't see any way out 
 of it." 
 
 " Tell her not to come." 
 
 " We can't afford to." 
 
 " Then tell her to come along, and let me keep 
 out of the way," Nathalie suggested hopefully. 
 
 Harry shook his head. 
 
 "That would spoil Mrs. Myers's plan. She 
 feels that Ursula needs to know girls." * 
 
 " I'm not girls ; I am in the singular number. 
 If she needs girls, why doesn't she go to 
 school ? " 
 
 " Her aunt wants her to have a tutor. And I 
 have really needed a pupil, now that Rex is off 
 my hands."
 
 92 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 Nathalie gave a worried sigh. 
 
 " Oh, it is so horrible to be poor, Harry ! It is 
 a shame for you to have to mix up with all sorts 
 of people, and work so hard." 
 
 " But it was only a few days ago that you were 
 wishing I could find another pupil." 
 
 " Yes, I know ; but I supposed he would be a 
 boy." 
 
 " I thought you liked Ursula," he urged, as he 
 watched the downcast face of his sister. 
 
 " I did. She is a spitfire ; but I liked her in 
 spite of it," Nathalie assented honestly. 
 
 " And you asked her to come here, for I heard 
 you." 
 
 " Yes, I did," Nathalie assented again. 
 
 " Then why don't you want me to tutor her ? " 
 he asked, with masculine obtuseness. 
 
 " Because Stop laughing at me, Harry Ar- 
 
 terburn ! Because she is as pretty as she can be, 
 and I don't want another girl around in my way." 
 
 Her brother surveyed her in astonishment. 
 
 " Jealous, Nathalie ? " 
 
 " Yes, I am," she said tempestuously. " I've 
 had you all to myself, and I don't propose to have 
 another girl coming into this house and spoiling 
 all my fun. If you want to tutor her, and I sup- 
 pose you must, why can't you go to her house, 
 and let me work by myself ? "
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 93 
 
 Harry waited until she came to a full stop. 
 Then he said quietly, 
 
 " I am sorry, chum ; but 1 am afraid we can't 
 help ourselves. It is only for two hours a day, 
 and it means twelve hundred a year." 
 
 She saw the worried look in his blue eyes, and 
 she relented swiftly. 
 
 " Hal, I am a wretch to make a fuss ; but I 
 have had such good times, working with you. 
 Truly, I didn't mean to be selfish. When will 
 she begin ? " 
 
 " Next Monday." 
 
 " Friday, Saturday, Sunday," Nathalie counted. 
 " Only three more days ! What made Mrs. Myers 
 think of such a thing, I wonder. Did you have 
 any idea of it ? " 
 
 "Not until after dinner, last night. It -rather 
 took my breath away ; but I can see her side of 
 it. She wants the girl taught, and she doesn't 
 care to tie her down into a school. She had heard 
 that I was keeping the care of your lessons and, 
 naturally, she thought I could be bribed to take 
 charge of another girl." 
 
 Nathalie looked up at him steadily. 
 
 " Do you honestly like it, Hal, like it down in 
 the very tip bottom of your soul ? " 
 
 " No," he confessed. " I would rather have a boy 
 at a thousand a year than a girl at twelve hundred."
 
 94 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 " What did you think of Mrs. Myers ? " 
 
 " That she is not nearly so bad as I expected." 
 
 "Perhaps she has experienced a change of 
 
 heart," Nathalie suggested. " "Well," she rose as 
 
 she spoke, and clasped her hands at the back of 
 
 her fluffy hair ; " there is one thing about it : we 
 
 aren't likely to be studying the same things, so 
 
 at least we shan't have to do our lessons out of 
 
 the same book, and I can turn my back upon her, 
 
 if I choose." 
 
 But in both of these statements, the fact belied 
 the prediction. At the end of the first week, 
 Nathalie had lost all desire to turn her back 
 upon the tempestuous, lovable little companion 
 who had been thrust upon her so abruptly. At 
 the end of the second week, she found herself 
 watching for Ursula's coming, impatient if she 
 were late, or if she failed to appear. They clashed 
 occasionally ; but, even in the clashes, their friend- 
 ship rang true. Moreover, Nathalie quickly dis- 
 covered that, in the matter of lessons, the fif teen- 
 year-old girl was no mean match for herself. It 
 was not for nothing that the worn Phi Beta 
 Kappa charm had hung for all these years from 
 Mr. Thain's shabby watch-guard. A man of 
 scholarly tastes, he had found it his greatest pleas- 
 ure to train the mind of his oldest child. It was 
 not so much that she had been educated, as that
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 95 
 
 she had grown up in the middle of a well-chosen, 
 well-thumbed library, and had taken her bedtime 
 stories from Ovid and the Odyssey, rather than 
 from Mother Goose. Study came to her as nat- 
 urally as housekeeping had come to Nathalie, and 
 from the start Harry Arterburn found it a close 
 race between his two girl pupils.
 
 96 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 CHAPTER EIGHT 
 
 '"TTHERE!" Nathalie paused in breathless 
 
 JL triumph. " Now don't you feel exactly 
 as if you were flying ? " 
 
 John made a hasty snatch at his soft gray hat. 
 As he did so, Nathalie noted with approval that 
 his gloves matched the hat to a shade. What- 
 ever his other failings, John Myers was always 
 irreproachable in his dress. 
 
 " My hat does," he answered her, as he tucked 
 it under his arm for safe-keeping. "I would 
 rather it waited until I was ready to start, too. 
 Isn't it a little gusty up here ? " 
 
 But Nathalie, secure in her four hat-pins and 
 her brimless toque, scorned the suggestion. In- 
 stead of heeding it, she turned to Ursula. 
 
 " Half the people in New York have never 
 been up here, and they have no idea what they 
 lose. Dr. Holden used to say that, whenever he 
 had a conceited fit, he came here, and it always 
 taught him that he didn't amount to much, after 
 all." 
 
 " Dr. Holden ? " Ursula said interrogatively.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 97 
 
 " Yes. He is Mrs. Barrett's nephew, and the 
 largest man I ever saw." 
 
 " Larger than Mr. Barrett ? " John asked 
 literally. 
 
 Nathalie frowned. 
 
 " I don't mean that. You can't measure Dr. 
 Holden by a tape line ; but he is a man who, 
 no matter how great the need for him may be, is 
 always large enough to fill it." 
 
 " Here in New York ? " Ursula asked idly, 
 with her eyes fixed on the picture before her. 
 
 " Yes, and everywhere else. He lives in the 
 city ; but he is on all sorts of committees and 
 commissions and things for all over the state. 
 He is a young man, too, just Hal's age. I mean 
 that literally, for they are twins." 
 
 " What brought you up here, in the first 
 place ? " Ursula inquired, as soon as Nathalie 
 paused. To her mind, Dr. Holden was a 
 veteran, too elderly to be at all interesting, and 
 she saw no need of prolonging the subject. 
 
 " Rex brought me. He was ill for a long time 
 after I knew him, and couldn't walk much. 
 After he was stronger, we used to explore 
 the whole city, until we knew it by heart. 
 We generally took a car down town, and then 
 started out for a penny walk. It was good fun, 
 too, heads right, tails left, at every corner, and it
 
 98 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 took us into the queerest places. Once it took 
 us into Mott Street, and we were so frightened 
 that we scurried off as fast as we could, and 
 never thought of our penny again until we were 
 safe in Fifth Avenue." 
 
 John looked interested. 
 
 " What is the matter with Mott Street ? " he 
 asked. 
 
 Nathalie shook her yellow head. 
 
 " That is another proof of what I was saying. 
 New Yorkers don't half know New York. Mott 
 Street is in Chinatown, and it's not always a 
 pleasant spot for a stroll. I never saw it but 
 that once; but I often used to go down into 
 Hester Street." 
 
 John's face looked as if he longed to make in- 
 quiries concerning Hester Street, also, but dared 
 not show his ignorance. Ursula, however, had 
 no such scruples. 
 
 " Where is that ? " she demanded. 
 
 Nathalie's pointing finger turned to the north- 
 east. 
 
 "Down there, away behind those horrid Cas- 
 toria signs. That is where the tenements are 
 thickest, and where the children swarm all over 
 the streets. It used to be a wonder to me that 
 any of them came out alive ; but they seem as 
 thrifty as a crop of young pusley."
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 99 
 
 " And you have been there ? " 
 
 " Once a week always, until I went abroad. I 
 used to go with Mrs. Ainslee, Mrs. Barrett's 
 niece ; but now that she has a baby of her own, 
 she can't go nearly so often. We'll go home, that 
 way." 
 
 " Is it safe ? " Ursula questioned rather doubt- 
 fully. 
 
 Nathalie's laugh rang out blithely. 
 
 " They don't eat up people, here in New York, 
 Ursula, and, as long as you go straight ahead and 
 pay attention to your own affairs, they don't 
 take much notice of you." 
 
 " But you don't go alone ; do you ? " she 
 persisted. 
 
 Nathalie turned to the boy beside her, with a 
 little bow which brought the color into his 
 cheeks. 
 
 " I am not going alone now. John will look 
 out for us, I know." 
 
 And John, nodding his assent, in that same in- 
 stant swore allegiance to this first girl who had 
 ever cared to place herself under his masculine 
 protection. Moreover, he resolved to show him- 
 self worthy of the trust. 
 
 " Never mind that now," Nathalie added. " I 
 brought you here to look at the view, not to 
 study geography. We went a good way in
 
 100 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 Europe to see things not half so wonderful as 
 this." 
 
 Nathalie spoke truthfully, for they stood at 
 the apex of the huge arch of the Brooklyn 
 bridge, midway between the towers which rose 
 far above them, carrying on their buttressed 
 crests the graceful lines of the cables. Around 
 them spread the vast panorama of Greater New 
 York, with Murray Hill in the northern distance 
 and the ragged sky -line of lower Broadway close 
 at hand. Behind them were the heights of 
 Brooklyn; under their feet, East Kiver whose 
 rough gray surface was cut here and there and 
 across and across with the whitening trails of 
 countless "ferry boats. Over their heads arched 
 an indigo sky, and from above the hills behind 
 the Narrows came the level shafts of winter sun- 
 shine that lighted the torch in Liberty's hand, 
 gilded the dome of the World building and 
 turned to sulphur-yellow the heavy columns of 
 smoke rolling sluggishly upward from the 
 chimneys at their feet. 
 
 Ursula drew a long breath of sheer delight. 
 
 " "Why doesn't somebody paint it ? " she asked. 
 
 "Too near home," John answered scorn- 
 fully. "If it were Venice or the Nile, every- 
 body would be after it. Things close at home 
 don't count."
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 101 
 
 " Then why don't the Venetians come here?" 
 Ursula demanded. 
 
 Her cousin laughed. 
 
 " The Nihilists do," he replied. 
 
 And Nathalie, listening, asked herself whether, 
 after all, Kingsley Barrett had been quite fair in 
 his sweeping condemnation of Pettijohn Myers. 
 Perhaps the boy was not altogether a dunce. 
 
 It was the first time that Nathalie had come 
 into really close contact with her boy companion, 
 for, on the night when she and Harry had dined 
 in the Myers home, as if by mutual consent, she 
 and John had remained as nearly as possible 
 upon opposite sides of the room. John was 
 proud, and had no mind to bear the snubbing 
 which might be in store for him unless he kept 
 his distance ; Nathalie was too utterly indifferent 
 to him even to feel any curiosity regarding him. 
 Their hands had touched and their eyes had met, 
 at meeting and at parting ; otherwise, had it not 
 been for John's one giggle, Nathalie would have 
 been quite oblivious of the fact that there was a 
 boy in the room. In spite of herself, she had 
 liked the giggle, even though it might have been 
 in part at her expense. At least, it showed her 
 that the boy was alive and owned a sense of 
 fun ; and hitherto she had not given him credit 
 even for so much.
 
 102 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 However, by this time, Ursula and Nathalie 
 had become close friends. Their friendship was 
 partly the result of chance, partly of propinquity ; 
 but in part it came from a certain likeness in 
 their traits and training. Heretofore, Nathalie 
 had made no real friends in New York, outside 
 the Barrett family, and Kingsley Barrett's going 
 away to Yale had left a large vacancy in her 
 very small world. In a sense, Nathalie cared for 
 no friend but her brother ; yet her healthy girl- 
 hood demanded the outlet of a companion of her 
 own age, and Ursula Thain supplied that outlet. 
 As a matter of course, the two girls, suddenly 
 thrust into each other's company during the 
 larger part of every morning, were bound either 
 to be close friends, or to hate each other 
 cordially. For a few days, they had met each 
 other with their nerves on edge. Then, merci- 
 fully for Harry Arterburn's peace of mind, they 
 had abruptly decided to be good friends. Ursula 
 was jealously admiring ; Nathalie was tolerant ; 
 both girls had been trained to simple and 
 thrifty habits, to the point of view which led to 
 sensible living, while circumstances had made 
 Ursula seem so much older than she was in 
 reality that in many respects the difference be- 
 tween them was one of years, not of actual 
 fact.
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 103 
 
 Nathalie enjoyed the friendship with certain 
 limitations ; Ursula enjoyed it absolutely ; John 
 Myers enjoyed it not at all. In fact, he was 
 rather inclined to resent the cavalier fashion in 
 which his cousin shunted him off on a side track 
 and left him lying there, while she departed in 
 search of Nathalie. Ursula's alternate teasing 
 and cajolery had been adding a new spice to 
 John's life of late, and he was of no mind to go 
 back to his old-time tasteless existence. He had 
 begun to form the habit of neglecting his books 
 for his cousin. Now that his cousin had taken 
 to neglecting him, he turned back to his books, 
 merely to find that they had lost much of their 
 savor. At first he was surprised at the dis- 
 covery, then disgusted. At last he unbent his 
 dignity to the point of expressing to Ursula his 
 wish that she should give him the first place in 
 her plans. Then he experienced a second wave 
 of surprise and disgust. For the first time in his 
 life, John Myers was finding his wish inadequate 
 for the ruling of all things within the Myers 
 home. Ursula merely laughed, nodded, and 
 went her way. 
 
 At length, one evening, the worm turned. 
 
 "Now look here," he protested wrathfully; 
 " where does my chance come in ? It's Nathalie 
 this, and Nathalie that ; but you've been promis-
 
 104 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 ing for more than a month to go to the Natural 
 History Museum with me." 
 
 " But I don't like your old bones and bugs 
 and things," Ursula objected, with a grimace of 
 disgust. 
 
 "How do you know? You never saw 
 any." 
 
 "Yes, I saw a horse's skeleton once, and it 
 was hideous. Oh, Jackie, what a skeleton you'd 
 make ; you have such lovely, even teeth ! " 
 
 But John frowned on her digression. 
 
 " Go with me, to-morrow, Ursula." 
 
 " What for ? " 
 
 " Because I want you." 
 
 " But I thought you didn't like girls." 
 
 " I don't ; but that doesn't signify. You are 
 half boy. You promised, you know." 
 
 "Did I?" Ursula said thoughtfully. "It 
 must have been a good while ago, Jackie, for I 
 can't seem to remember." 
 
 He thought he discerned signs of yielding in 
 her tone. 
 
 " But you'll go ? " 
 
 " Sorry, Jack ; but I can't." 
 
 " Why not ? " 
 
 " I'm going to walk with Nathalie." 
 
 " Then take me with you," he demanded. 
 
 Ursula raised her brows.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 105 
 
 " But that would make two girls, and you say 
 you can't stand even one." 
 
 He smiled again. 
 
 " No matter. I'll risk it." 
 
 Ursula meditated aloud. 
 
 " You'll spoil all the fun ; boys do. And 
 you'll get tired, and fret to go home. And 
 Nathalie probably won't want you around." 
 
 John flushed hotly. 
 
 " Did she ever say so ? " 
 
 " No. Not just that." 
 
 " What did she say ?" 
 
 " Oh, lots of things." 
 
 " About me ? " 
 
 " N-no." Ursula looked up at him out of 
 the corners of her eyes. " No ; I don't think 
 I ever heard her mention you, one way or the 
 other." Then she relented. " You will be dread- 
 fully in the way, Jack ; but I suppose, if you're 
 so very anxious, I can ask her if she minds 
 having you go with us, just this once." 
 
 And Nathalie, who had chanced to be in a 
 particularly gracious mood, had been so far from 
 minding that she had taken the cousins upon one 
 of her own favorite walks, the footpath over the 
 Brooklyn bridge. Moreover, although at the 
 start she had taken care to fortify herself with 
 Ursula placed between herself and John, by the
 
 106 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 time they halted on the crest of the arch, Nathalie 
 had been sauntering along contentedly, with one 
 of the cousins upon either hand. 
 
 As they came out through the crowded west- 
 ern approach to the bridge, Nathalie turned 
 sharply to the eastward at a pace which, it must be 
 confessed, taxed to the uttermost John's powers 
 of endurance ; but when she came at length into 
 the district which goes to Seward Park for its 
 breathing room, her step lagged a little, and she 
 began tossing merry greetings upon this side and 
 that. Ursula was already staring about her in 
 frank curiosity ; but John shrugged his shoulders 
 in frank disgust, and stalked along at her side, 
 his eyes fixed on vacancy and his neat gloves in 
 the clean recesses of his side pockets. Hygiene 
 to the contrary, however, at the end of the first 
 block, he decided to breathe by means of his 
 mouth alone. At the end of the second block, he 
 turned upon Nathalie the stony eye of disfavor. 
 
 "What do you propose to do with those 
 those br youngsters ? " 
 
 Nathalie glanced down at the strings of chil- 
 dren that hung, like parti-colored kite-tails, from 
 either thumb. Then she glanced up at John's 
 delicate face and immaculate garb. 
 
 " Can't you take a few of them in tow ? " she 
 questioned demurely. " They get so little fun
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 107 
 
 out of life, and they do so love to hold hands, as 
 they call it." 
 
 " Thanks, no. I prefer to keep clean." 
 
 " So would they, if they had the chance," 
 Nathalie retorted. 
 
 " They don't look it ; but I'll give them the 
 benefit of the doubt, if you'll only come along." 
 
 John was rapidly growing masterful, and 
 Ursula nudged his ribs while she cast an 
 affrighted look at Nathalie who did not appear 
 to be in the least disturbed. It was not the first 
 time she had taken spotless strangers into Hester 
 Street. She knew all their symptoms by heart 
 and, moreover, she rejoiced in the more acute 
 of these symptoms. There was another silence, 
 of amusement to Nathalie, of physical and 
 mental agony to John. Then he demanded, 
 
 " Are your friends going to escort you all the 
 way home ? " 
 
 " Oh, no ; they will begin to drop off very 
 soon," she answered blithely. 
 
 John Myers was a peaceful boy, yet now he 
 began to wish that the dropping off of their es- 
 cort might be in the figurative sense which 
 presages the need of an undertaker. The little 
 knot of children was swelling fast, and they sur- 
 rounded Nathalie like a swarm of bees, crowding 
 and jostling John, treading over his polished
 
 108 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 shoes with their muddy bare feet, and filling his 
 ears with their shrill, discordant jabbering. 
 Little by little, he found himself included in 
 their demonstrations of affection towards 
 Nathalie ; but he was so far from being pleased 
 by the attention that, when one small and 
 unwashed urchin seized him by his coat, he 
 promptly detached the little paw, with the sharp 
 order, 
 
 u Hands off, youngster ! " 
 
 Instantly the child rushed to the gutter for a 
 handful of mud which fell full in the crown 
 of John's gray hat. Other mud followed, and 
 yet more, and then a little stone, aimed by some 
 reckless child hand, swept into the midst of the 
 group. In another instant, the scrimmage would 
 have been general, had it not been that the stone 
 passed John by and landed full in the face of the 
 first little aggressor. There was a hush ; then, 
 before the tumult could arise again, before even 
 Nathalie could stir, John Myers, immaculate no 
 longer, was sitting on the curbstone, his feet in 
 the gutter, while he wiped away the line that 
 reddened and reddened yet again across the 
 cheek of the urchin on his knee. 
 
 "I wouldn't cry, youngster," he explained 
 to his patient kindly. " It won't hurt but a 
 minute, and then you'll forget all about it. Shut
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 109 
 
 your teeth and and count forty-one, and then 
 see if it doesn't feel better." 
 
 But it did not feel better, and in his woe 
 the child twisted his grimy legs into strange 
 knots over John's knees, and the child's mates, 
 crowding around to offer sympathy, splashed to 
 and fro in the gutter and added their share 
 to the ruin which their friend had wrought. 
 Nevertheless, the boy's sobs were yielding to 
 consolation. John's grip was comforting; 
 John's voice in his ears was full of encourage- 
 ment and, for the first time in his desolate little 
 life, the child knew what it was to be held 
 tenderly and with affection. For a moment, he 
 struggled with his sobs, held them back man- 
 fully and then, when once more they would 
 have their way, he nuzzled his bullet-like little 
 head, mud and cut and all, into the front of 
 John's flawless necktie and there, hidden from 
 view, wailed out all his misery and all his 
 gratitude. 
 
 The sobs died away into silence, and the 
 crowd died away on the trail of a hurdy-gurdy. 
 John rose. Then he essayed to shake himself. 
 Then he looked at his girl companions with 
 a shamefaced smile. 
 
 " I couldn't let the little dago bleed to death," 
 he said apologetically.
 
 110 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 " No," Nathalie assented. 
 
 John gave a furtive rub at his sodden knees. 
 
 " And it really was a beastly cut," he urged. 
 
 " Yes," Nathalie assented again. 
 
 " Of course, he didn't deserve it ; but he was 
 such a little fellow," John added, Avhile he 
 glanced reproachfully at his left shoe on whose 
 shiny top the print of five bare toes was dis- 
 tinctly visible. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 John felt that Nathalie's replies were be- 
 coming monotonous. He could not know that 
 she dared not trust her voice to say more, and 
 he resented her apparent indifference to his 
 plight. The silence deepened. 
 
 " Oh, but I say now," he burst out at length ; 
 " how am I going to get you two girls home ? " 
 
 " We passed some cross-town cars in Canal 
 Street," Ursula suggested. 
 
 " Yes ; but I can't go with you." 
 
 " Why not ? " Nathalie demanded suddenly. 
 
 For his only answer, he dropped his arms 
 to his sides and turned himself completely 
 around, just once and very slowly. It was 
 eloquent, and Nathalie felt her voice going once 
 more. However, she had a shrewd suspicion 
 that John Myers, in his present state of evolu- 
 tion, could never appreciate a joke of which
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 111 
 
 he himself was the point, and she steadied her 
 voice again. 
 
 "If Ursula and I don't mind it, why should 
 you ? For my part, I am glad to be seen with a 
 man who has the grit to be a gentleman." 
 
 He flushed at her praise ; but, instead of 
 accepting it, he attempted to turn it off with a 
 laugh at her expense. 
 
 " But you said that nobody would pay any at- 
 tention to us." 
 
 Nathalie's lip curled ever so slightly. 
 
 " I said if we went ahead and paid attention 
 to our own affairs." 
 
 " I did," he answered defensively. " Aren't 
 my clothes my own affair ? " 
 
 Nathalie's comprehensive glance took him in, 
 in all his details from his necktie to his knees. 
 Then she shook her head gravely. 
 
 " Apparently not," she answered. " You 
 seem to have given yourself wholty to the 
 masses." 
 
 But, underneath her mockery, her voice had 
 the ring of hearty approval.
 
 112 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 CHAPTER NINE 
 
 GREAT was the indignation and consterna- 
 tion in the Myers dining-room, that night, 
 when Ursula, between her giggles, recounted the 
 tale of John's misadventures. Her aunt and 
 uncle were already at the table when she entered 
 the room, and her aunt was tapping the table- 
 cloth a little impatiently. Promptness at meals 
 was one of the initial clauses of Mrs. Myers's creed. 
 
 " You are late, Ursula," she announced, as 
 Ursula's forward toe rested upon the threshold. 
 
 It was one of Ursula's principles never to an- 
 swer the statement of an undeniable truth, when 
 that truth was put forward to serve as argument 
 or rebuke. Answers, she reasoned, led to other 
 statements, and those to needless discussion, and 
 Ursula hated discussion. Accordingly, she slid 
 into her seat at the table, and picked up her soup 
 spoon. 
 
 Mrs. Myers renewed the charge. 
 
 " Didn't you know you were going to be late ? " 
 
 " Yes, Aunt Ursula." 
 
 " Then why didn't you hurry ? "
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 113 
 
 Ursula's lips puckered into a smile. 
 
 " Circumstances prevented," she answered de- 
 murely. 
 
 Her aunt laid down her spoon and folded her 
 hands before her empty plate, in token of the 
 fact that she was waiting patiently for her niece 
 to catch up. Ursula took the hint, attempted to 
 gulp her soup too hastily, burned herself, choked 
 and then retired, disgraced, into the folds of her 
 napkin. 
 
 " I should advise you, another time, to be mis- 
 tress of circumstances," Mrs. Myers observed 
 majestically, as soon as she could be heard above 
 the coughing. 
 
 " Where is John ? " Mr. Myers interrupted. 
 
 " He is getting himself clean," Ursula re- 
 sponded irrepressibly, for the whole situation 
 was proving too much for her gravity. 
 
 "Ursula!" 
 
 " Yes, ma'am. But truly I wasn't to blame." 
 
 " But what is John really doing ? " Mr. Myers 
 demanded. 
 
 To the manifest horror of her aunt, Ursula 
 leaned back in her chair and laughed till the tears 
 came. 
 
 " I told you before," she gasped. "He is get- 
 ting himself clean enough so he can come to the 
 table."
 
 114 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 Mrs. Myers looked puzzled, annoyed, indignant. 
 Then she turned to the maid. 
 
 " Maggie, go up to Mr. John's room and ask 
 him to come down at once, no matter what he 
 is doing. Tell him I wish to speak to him im- 
 mediately, and he is to come down just as 
 he is." 
 
 The click of the maid's heels could be heard 
 ascending the stairway. Then it descended 
 again, and, when it descended, it was accom- 
 panied by a curious padding sound that came 
 nearer the dining-room door. Ursula glanced up 
 expectantly. Then she covered her face with 
 her napkin and gave way to her mirth. 
 
 Startled at the unexpected and imperative 
 summons, John had made no delay in obeying 
 his mother's behest. He had appeared upon the 
 threshold, not his accustomed orderly self, but a 
 rumpled vision in his stocking feet and long blue 
 bathrobe, a vision which trailed behind it a 
 muddy coat held by one sodden sleeve. His hair 
 was awry, and his eyes were anxious as they 
 roved from his mother's set face to Ursula, buried 
 in her napkin. 
 
 " What is it ? " he asked hurriedly. " Is some- 
 body ill ? Is Ursula having a fit ? " 
 
 Before his mother could frame a suitable re- 
 sponse, Ursula had uncovered one eye.
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 115 
 
 " Oh, Jack ! " she gasped. Then she buried 
 her face in her napkin once more. 
 
 Mrs. Myers began to feel that, in some myste- 
 rious fashion, her dignity was being assailed, and 
 she resented it, as one always resents being on 
 the outskirts of a joke. 
 
 " Be still, Ursula ! John, what has happened 
 to you ? " 
 
 Her tone, sharp at first, softened on the last 
 words, and she looked anxiously at her son. He 
 reddened, partly at her question, partly at the 
 consciousness of his attire which was manifestly 
 unsuitable for an evening dinner. One hand 
 jerked the coat out of sight behind him ; the 
 other gripped the bathrobe into still closer folds 
 in front. 
 
 "We went to walk, and I had some mud 
 splashed on me," he explained vaguely. 
 
 His mother started up in alarm. 
 
 "Tell me, John, were you run over?" she 
 cried. " Were you badly hurt ? " 
 
 But John already had fled in the direction of 
 the stairway, with an agility which ought to 
 have reassured his mother as to his physical con- 
 dition. Mrs. Myers stared after him, until the 
 last blue fold had vanished around the corner of 
 the upper landing. Then she turned back to 
 Ursula.
 
 116 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 " Oh, Ursula," she said reproachfully ; " how 
 could you let him ? " 
 
 Ursula stared back at her aunt in open-eyed 
 amazement. 
 
 " Let him ? I didn't have anything to do with 
 it." 
 
 " But you were with him." 
 
 " Yes, of course." 
 
 " Then you shouldn't have let him be so reck- 
 less. John is too delicate to run any risks." 
 
 Ursula essayed to reason with her aunt. 
 
 " But he wasn't reckless, and there wasn't any 
 risk, anyway." 
 
 " Where were you when it happened ? " 
 
 " In Hester Street." 
 
 " "Where is that, I should like to know ? " 
 
 " Oh, over there in that funny corner beyond 
 Second Avenue," Ursula replied as airily as if 
 she had been familiar from her babyhood with 
 that vague region generally known as the East 
 Side. 
 
 " Ursula Thain ! What took you into that 
 dreadful part of the city ? No nice girl is ever 
 seen there." 
 
 "There were two seen there, to-day," Ursula 
 returned defiantly. 
 
 "Who?" 
 
 "Ursula Thain and Nathalie Arterburn."
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 117 
 
 Mrs. Myers frowned. 
 
 " Did Nathalie Arterburn go there with 
 you?" 
 
 " Yes, she took us." Ursula nonchalantly at- 
 tacked her roast beef. 
 
 " What would Mrs. Barrett have said ! " 
 
 " It was Mrs. Barrett's niece who took her, in 
 the first place." 
 
 Mr. Myers glanced up, as he spoke with the 
 dignity which he assumed at times, 
 
 " Ursula, the East Side is no place for children, 
 at least, for children by themselves, without any 
 older people. John should have known better, 
 for he has lived in the city all his life. You 
 were not at all to blame ; you couldn't be ex- 
 pected to know what places were unfit for you 
 to explore. But now I wish you to make me a 
 promise and to keep it. As long as you are in 
 New York, you are not to go into any such 
 places again, unless your aunt or I am with 
 you." 
 
 "I won't," Ursula promised readily enough, 
 for she was fast growing to like her taciturn 
 uncle. " But how can I tell what such places 
 are?" 
 
 " Come to the library, after dinner, and I will 
 show you," he answered kindly. "For the sake 
 of your father, child, as well as for your own, we
 
 118 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 want to keep you out of harm's way. And now 
 what was it that happened to John ? " 
 
 Sobered by his rebuke, Ursula began the story 
 gravely enough ; but, as she went on, her mirth 
 came uppermost once more until, by the time she 
 had finished, her uncle was laughing in sympathy 
 with her merriment. 
 
 " It might have ended more seriously," he said 
 at last ; " but fortunately no harm was done. I 
 don't want you repeating the experiment ; but I 
 have an idea that, for the once, it won't hurt the 
 boy to see the rougher side of things. He cer- 
 tainly showed himself a decent sort of fellow in 
 the end." 
 
 Then he checked himself, for John had just 
 come into the room, as immaculate as ever, but 
 looking uncommonly alert and energetic. He 
 laughed at his father's last words. 
 
 " No especial honor to me, though," he said 
 jovially. " I had never been in a street fight be- 
 fore, and I must confess that I rather enjoyed 
 the new experience." 
 
 He recurred to the subject, the next day, when 
 he and Ursula were starting on their long-de- 
 ferred trip to the Museum of Natural History. 
 Ursula had consented with unwonted docility to 
 his suggestion that they should go, that after- 
 noon. For some unexplained cause, she had
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 119 
 
 never liked her cousin so well, nor been so ready 
 to fall in with his plans and wishes, as since she 
 had seen him sitting on the muddy curbstone, 
 advising the child in his arms to stop crying and 
 count forty-one. The sight had suggested to 
 her the possibility of as yet unsounded depths 
 to her cousin's philosophy. 
 
 John had come in from school, that noon, to 
 find Ursula busy in his room with hammer and 
 nails. 
 
 " What the mischief are you doing ? " he asked 
 in surprise. 
 
 She pointed to the inky map of New York 
 which she was fastening to the closet door. 
 
 "I'm establishing a dead-line for the protec- 
 tion of your clothes. When you enter that great 
 black space, you'll go alone, and in jumper and 
 overalls." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 " What I say. This is the twin to a map your 
 father marked for me. He put a line all around 
 this part of the city, and he says we aren't to go 
 there, unless he tells us we can. I made your 
 map blacker than mine, though, for I thought 
 you needed a warning more than I did." 
 
 " Did you tell Nathalie ? " he asked abruptly. 
 
 " About what ? " 
 
 " That we couldn't have free range ? "
 
 120 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Didn't she laugh?" 
 
 Ursula faced him sharply. 
 
 " No, she didn't ; but suppose she did ? Your 
 father doesn't say must very often. When he 
 does, I propose to mind him, and to have you 
 mind him, too." 
 
 " Don't I always mind him ? " 
 
 " Yes, after a fashion." 
 
 " What sort of a fashion ? " he demanded. 
 
 " A fashion I wasn't allowed to use," she re- 
 torted. "When he tells you to do something, 
 you generally do it ; but you do it in such a 
 bored, condescending sort of way that, for all 
 the respect there is in it, you might about as well 
 leave it undone." 
 
 "Did you always mind your father?" he 
 questioned keenly. 
 
 For a moment, Ursula's eyes drooped. Then 
 she raised them again. 
 
 " Not always," she confessed. " Not as often 
 as I wish now I had done. But, at least, I 
 treated his opinions as if they were important 
 enough to make me mad, and I don't know but 
 there's something in that." 
 
 Mild sunshine had given place to cold, snapping 
 weather, as the two cousins turned into the park, 
 the next day. Ursula gave a little cry of delight.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 121 
 
 " Oh, glorious ! " she exclaimed. " This is the 
 first bit of ice I have seen, this year." 
 
 Before her cousin could stop her, she had 
 darted forward in a quick, short run, and gone 
 sliding away along the narrow strip of ice that 
 bordered the walk. John started to remon- 
 strate ; then he stayed his speech. According to 
 his code, it was a totally unorthodox proceeding 
 upon Ursula's part; yet most things were for- 
 givable in a pretty girl, and Ursula certainly did 
 look very pretty, as she turned and came sliding 
 back to him, with her brown eyes sparkling above 
 the fluffy brown fur of her collar. She read his 
 silent disapproval, however, and, coming closer 
 to his side, she tucked her hand through the 
 curve of his elbow. 
 
 " Shocked again, Jackie ? " she asked com- 
 posedly. " I really couldn't help it, and I need 
 something as an offset to the bones, you know." 
 
 John felt that it was likewise unorthodox to be 
 walking arm in arm with his cousin. Neverthe- 
 less, he neglected to shake off the muscular little 
 hand that rested so firmly on his sleeve. 
 
 " I am getting used to being shocked," he re- 
 turned philosophically. "It is a whole educa- 
 tion in itself to learn to keep up with you." 
 
 " Does that mean that I am fast ? " she queried 
 gayly.
 
 122 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 The laugh died out of John's eyes, and he 
 looked down at her gravely. 
 
 " Not the least bit in the world," he answered, 
 and his voice had an accent which was quite new 
 to Ursula. 
 
 They walked on in silence for a time, while 
 each, for some unexplained reason, was thinking 
 steadily of the other. Then John spoke from 
 the very midst of his thinking. 
 
 " Do you suppose he really would have cared 
 about yesterday, Ursula ? " 
 
 " Who ? " she questioned blankly. 
 
 " Your father." 
 
 Ursula's face sobered. 
 
 "I don't know. I hope not. Of course, I 
 shall write to him about it." 
 
 " If you do, you'd better tell him I was the 
 one to blame," her cousin said bluntly. 
 
 " But you weren't ; at least, not for our going 
 there in the first place. That did itself." 
 
 John went on with his own train of thought. 
 
 " And yet, I don't know as I want your father 
 to think I am getting you into scrapes. What 
 is the use of telling him ? " 
 
 Ursula's hand dropped from his elbow. 
 
 "But I tell my father everything.' 1 
 
 " What's the use ? " 
 
 "There isn't any use, I suppose," she said
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 123 
 
 tartly. " But don't you ever do anything just 
 for the sake of doing it, without thinking 
 whether it is of use or not ? " 
 
 " Yes, sometimes." 
 
 " Well, this is one of the times," she retorted. 
 " I've told him things, all my life." 
 
 " Because he makes you ? " 
 
 " No ; because he always understands." 
 
 " More than your mother ? " John asked 
 curiously. 
 
 " Yes, she reasons things out in time ; but my 
 father never has to reason. He knows, himself," 
 Ursula answered, with fine discrimination. 
 
 " Do you know," John went on reflectively ; 
 " you always talk as if you and your father were 
 the best chums in the world." 
 
 " Well, we are." 
 
 " How funny ! " John's accent was medita- 
 tive. 
 
 "It isn't funny at all," Ursula contradicted 
 him. " It is sober, serious earnest." 
 
 "How queer, then, if you must have the 
 proper word ! " 
 
 "It's not queer in the least. Everybody's 
 father is." 
 
 " Mine isn't." 
 
 " And whose fault is it, I'd like to know ? " 
 
 " I don't know as it's anybody's fault. It just is."
 
 124 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 " It is your own fault, too. You go your own 
 way alone, and let him pay the bills." 
 
 " He's busy. He doesn't want me around in 
 the way." 
 
 " Did you ever give him a chance to find 
 out ? " 
 
 " Yes, I suppose so." 
 
 "Well, I suppose not, then, if what I have 
 seen since I came, is any sample. You let your 
 mother fuss over you and spoil you like a poodle 
 dog; but " 
 
 " Oh, look here now ! " John protested hotly. 
 
 However, Ursula swept on, 
 
 " You know she does, and you let her, and, 
 what's worse, you like it. But as far as your 
 father is concerned, you might as well have a tin 
 bank. You never act as if you cared what he 
 did, or if he were tired, or if his business was bad 
 or good. I don't believe you have been in his 
 office a dozen times, this last year." 
 
 " Why, of course not." 
 
 " "Well, you ought to. You ought to act as if 
 you cared about the things he cares about. He 
 isn't going to talk to you about your things, un- 
 less you talk to him about his. My father and I 
 talk over everything, from his sermons to my 
 best gown. I used to make doll clothes in a 
 corner of the study ; and then, if I had been very
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 125 
 
 quiet and not dropped the scissors, when his 
 sermon was done, he used to tell me stories out 
 of Homer and Judges." 
 
 Her face was brilliant with her enthusiasm, 
 her eyes like stars. John came out of his medi- 
 tation, and surveyed her admiringly. 
 
 " By Jove, Ursula," he said ; " you look as if 
 you were talking about Achilles himself." 
 
 Her eyes softened, as there came before her 
 mind the picture of her father, shabby, un- 
 worldly, yet a gentleman who, she told herself, 
 was fit to sit at kingly tables. 
 
 " No," she answered slowly ; " only of Gideon."
 
 126 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 CHAPTER TEN 
 
 " T USED to say I hated tripe worse than any- 
 
 JL thing else in this world," Ursula solilo- 
 quized ; " but I honestly think I hate English 
 history worse. I never can remember which 
 Henry did which, nor whether the Chartists had 
 anything to do with Magna Charta. Yes, Jack. 
 Were you saying things to me ? " 
 
 " I should say so. My throat is husky with 
 my efforts to arouse you." 
 
 Ursula went to the head of the stairs. Then 
 she shook her head at him in mock disapproval. 
 
 " Oh, Jackie, how you are deteriorating ! 
 Tempusfuit" 
 
 " Tempusfuit what ? " he demanded. 
 
 " Tempus fuit that you wouldn't have sat on 
 the newel post and shouted at the top of your 
 lungs. Why didn't you come to my door and 
 tap, like a gentleman ? " 
 
 " I did once, the day after you came, and you 
 roared at me so that I had to leave off tapping 
 and use all my fingers to stuff into my ears," he an- 
 swered unconcernedly. " What are you doing ? "
 
 VB8ULAS FRESHMAN 127 
 
 " Wishing that Mr. Arterburn would choke to 
 death on his own English histories." 
 
 " I thought you liked him." 
 
 " So I do. That doesn't signify that I like all 
 his bad habits, though. It is one thing to like a 
 man ; it's quite another matter to like his his- 
 tory lessons. I wish he would confine himself to 
 Greek." 
 
 " Why don't you tell him to go slow ? " 
 
 " For the simple reason that Nathalie Arter- 
 burn is two years older than I am." 
 
 " What does that have to do with it ? " 
 
 Ursula eyed her cousin despairingly. 
 
 " Pettijohn Myers, you haven't the spunk of a 
 mouse," she said at length. 
 
 He dismounted from the newel post, and stood 
 facing her. 
 
 " Who taught you that name ? " he asked 
 indignantly. 
 
 " Nathalie Arterburn." 
 
 " How did she know it ? " 
 
 " She said Eex Barrett used to call you so." 
 
 " Well, you ought to be ashamed of yourself 
 for using it," he returned hotly. 
 
 Ursula's voice took on an accent of injured 
 innocence. 
 
 " I'm sure it is a good name." 
 
 " Good enough, only there's no sense in it."
 
 128 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 The extreme tip of her tongue showed itself 
 between her teeth. Then she laughed. 
 
 " Don't be too sure of that. When you're 
 nice, and you can be very nice, you know, when 
 you are nice, you're Jackie; but, once in a 
 while, you're nothing in this world but Petti- 
 john Myers." 
 
 With a bound, he passed her, as she still sat on 
 the topmost stair, went into his own room and 
 banged the door behind him. Secure in the 
 knowledge that her aunt was out making calls, 
 Ursula followed him and began drubbing on the 
 door. 
 
 " Pettijohn Myers ! " she called. 
 
 No answer. 
 
 "John!" 
 
 No answer. 
 
 " Cousin Jack ! " 
 
 Still no answer. 
 
 " Jackie ? " Her dancing eyes mocked at her 
 own pleading voice. 
 
 "Wha' do you want?" The answer was 
 gruff, and apparently it consisted of but one 
 polysyllabic word ; nevertheless, it was an an- 
 swer. 
 
 " I want you." 
 
 "What for?" 
 
 " Because you want me."
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 129 
 
 "But I don't." 
 
 " Then what did you call me for, and disturb 
 me when I was trying to mind my book ? " By 
 this time, her accent was rebuking. 
 
 The door banged open, and John stood on the 
 threshold. 
 
 " Oh, confound you ! " he protested. " Why 
 can't you ever let a fellow alone ? " 
 
 "Because I'm lonesome, and I want you, 
 Jackie. Come and play with me." 
 
 " I'll be hanged if I do ; you're entirely too 
 saucy. There are some things no fellow will 
 stand." And the door banged shut again. 
 
 Ursula promptly converted the door into an 
 organ and played Georgia on it, using the upper 
 panels as manuals, the lower ones as pedals. Her 
 warlike strains were appropriate, yet they did 
 not prove alluring and John, within, was omi- 
 nously silent, so she abandoned her assault and 
 philosophically took herself out for a walk. 
 
 She came to dinner, flushed and contented 
 with life. She had been seized with a sudden 
 inspiration which had led her to walk down to 
 meet her uncle, and his manifest pleasure in the 
 little attention had caused her to forget John 
 entirely. When she appeared at the table, how- 
 ever, she was astonished to find that John's face 
 was still averted from her. Accordingly, she
 
 130 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 talked at him, all dinner time, with the discour- 
 aging result that, by the time dinner was over, 
 John's face was more averted from her than ever. 
 
 Mrs. Myers and her husband went to the 
 theatre, that evening. As soon as Ursula heard 
 the front door close upon them, she started in 
 search of John, with the full intention of fight- 
 ing it out with him and reestablishing some sort 
 of a peace. Ursula had no love of an armed 
 neutrality. Her code demanded war to the 
 knife and no quarter, followed by a full surren- 
 der upon one side or the other. Furthermore, 
 she preferred that hers should rarely be the side 
 to surrender. 
 
 However, her search for John proved unavail- 
 ing. He had removed himself directly after din- 
 ner ; and Ursula's first thought was that he had 
 gone away out of the house. Nevertheless, the 
 girl was a born strategist. She went to the rack, 
 counted over the tale of his various hats and dis- 
 covered that none was missing. Next she betook 
 herself to the street and reconnoitred the situa- 
 tion. In John's room, the lights were burning 
 brightly. She nodded to herself and went in 
 pursuit of one of the maids. 
 
 "Tell Mr. John he is wanted in the parlor, 
 please," she ordered. " He is in his room. You 
 needn't say who it is that wants him."
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 131 
 
 The maid hesitated, for she suspected that 
 mischief was on foot ; but John was rather un- 
 popular with the servants who one and all adored 
 Ursula, so she went to summon the youthful 
 master of the house. 
 
 When, after an interval, the youthful master 
 of the house put in an appearance, it was obvious 
 that he expected to find a guest awaiting him. 
 This was shown partly by the very manifest 
 prinking which had occupied the interval, partly 
 by the cordial smile that lighted his face, when 
 he entered the room. As she heard his step 
 come nearer, Ursula glanced up languidly from 
 her book. JSTo guest was in sight, and John was 
 peering into the corners of the large room. 
 
 " Who is here ? " he demanded. 
 
 " I am." 
 
 " Who else ? " 
 
 " Nobody." 
 
 " Maggie told me somebody wanted to see me." 
 
 " Well, sit down, then." 
 
 " But who wants me ? " 
 
 "I do." 
 
 John stared indignantly at her for a minute. 
 
 " Oh, fudge ! " he remarked. Then he swung 
 around on his heel. 
 
 Ursula thought that her prey was about to es- 
 cape her, and she straightened up in her chair.
 
 132 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 " Come back here, Jack," she ordered him. 
 
 To her surprise, he obeyed her. 
 
 " Sit down." 
 
 His obedience stopped short at her second 
 order. 
 
 " Well, stand up, then ; but you'd better take 
 it easy, while you can." 
 
 " What do you want ? " he asked sharply. 
 
 " To talk to you." 
 
 " Talk away, then, and hurry up about it." 
 
 " I want to know what makes you so cross to 
 me." 
 
 " I'm not cross." 
 
 " Yes, you are ; you're savage as a meat ax, 
 and thorny as a hedgepig. You were cross, this 
 afternoon, and, at dinner, you wouldn't speak to 
 me, and now you look as if you would like to eat 
 me up. I don't think it is a very good way to 
 treat company." 
 
 John listened patiently, until she was through 
 with her arraignment. Then he asked, 
 
 "Is that all?" 
 
 " No. I forgot to say that you ought to be 
 ashamed of yourself." 
 
 He looked at her meditatively for a minute. 
 
 " So ought you," he responded then. 
 
 Ursula leaned back in her deep chair and 
 watched her cousin from under her lowered
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 133 
 
 lashes. It seemed to her that she had never be- 
 fore seen him look one half so well. His new 
 clothes, donned for the mythical guest, were as 
 becoming to him as was the spot of angry scarlet 
 that burned in either cheek. As she studied 
 him, she half relented. Then her heart hard- 
 ened. Ursula was in a perverse mood, that 
 night ; and, moreover, she had decided that John 
 must be disciplined. 
 
 "What have I done ? " she asked innocently. 
 
 "Been beastly rude." 
 
 "How?" 
 
 "You called me Pettijohn Myers, for one 
 thing," he said resentfully. 
 
 Her long lashes drooped yet a little lower. 
 Then she drawled, 
 
 " Yes, I suppose it is always mean to twit on 
 facts." 
 
 In her idler moments, Ursula had long been 
 wondering what her cousin would be like, if once 
 he were thoroughly roused. Now her curiosity 
 was answered. For a minute, John stared down 
 at her with blazing eyes. 
 
 " Oh, you hateful little " Then swiftly he 
 
 checked himself. " If that is all, I think I'll go." 
 
 The color had died out of his face, and his lips 
 were shut tight together, as he turned to leave 
 the room. Eeckless as she generally was, Ursula
 
 134 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 was frightened at his evident anger, and she 
 swiftly realized that, without John's companion- 
 ship, life in the Myers home would be a dreary 
 experience. She sprang up, ran after him and 
 caught him by the hand, just as he reached the 
 stairs. 
 
 " Jack, don't go ! I was only teasing." 
 
 " Sometimes teasing can go too far," he said 
 stiffly. 
 
 " Truly, I didn't mean it, Jackie," she begged 
 him. 
 
 " But it hurts, just the same." He started to 
 go up the stairs. 
 
 All at once, Ursula knew that she was stand- 
 ing on the edge of a crisis. It had not occurred 
 to her that, down in his secret heart, John might 
 not be proud of some of his more salient char- 
 acteristics. Now her womanly instinct warned 
 her truly that, if once she let her cousin go away 
 to think over their quarrel, she might as well bid 
 good-bye to any hope of keeping on with their 
 friendship. Now or never was the time for 
 peace. 
 
 Putting forth all her strength, she half led, 
 half pushed John back into the parlor and forced 
 him to sit down on a sofa. Then, still holding 
 his hand, she dropped down at his side. 
 
 "Jack, you've got to listen to me," she said
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 135 
 
 tempestuously. " I was only just trying to tease 
 you. I never supposed you would take it in 
 earnest. We used to tease each other all the 
 time, at home, the whole lot of us, and nobody 
 ever thought of caring. We knew just what it 
 all amounted to, and I supposed you knew it, too. 
 I never thought you would turn peppery over a 
 little thing like that." 
 
 " It doesn't strike me that it was such a very 
 little thing," he returned, as he tried to pull his 
 hand away from her strong, nervous fingers. 
 
 She held on resolutely. 
 
 " Jack, are you really and truly and honestly 
 mad at me ? " she asked. 
 
 " Yes, I am." The answer was full of boyish 
 dignity, and again Ursula's heart smote her. 
 
 " I am sorry. I can't say more than that." 
 
 " No." 
 
 " But I do wish you would tell me what you 
 are mad at," she went on, after a pause. 
 
 " A good many things." 
 
 " Oh, dear, I can't see what," she broke out, 
 half penitently, half resentfully. 
 
 " For calling me Pettijohn Myers, for one 
 thing." 
 
 She looked at him impatiently. 
 
 "Jack, what do you care? Everybody gets 
 nicknamed, sooner or later. At home, I was
 
 136 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 Snub by Thain, all over the school, just on ac- 
 count of my nose ; but I didn't care a row of 
 pins about it." 
 
 " I am glad you didn't. I do care. That's the 
 difference." 
 
 Ursula dropped his hand. 
 
 " Well, then I must say I am glad \ve are dif- 
 ferent," she said hotly. Then, as he made a 
 move as if to rise, she seized his hand again. 
 " But Pettijohn isn't a bad name. You oughtn't 
 to mind it." 
 
 Suddenly he freed himself and, rising, tramped 
 the length of the room and back again. Then 
 he faced her. 
 
 " I don't mind the name ; it's what it stands 
 for. It is no fun to know that one isn't popular." 
 
 " How do you know it ? " she demanded. 
 
 " All sorts of ways. By their calling me Pet- 
 tijohn, for one thing." 
 
 "Nicknames don't count." 
 
 " It depends on whether they use them to your 
 face, or behind your back," he answered moodily. 
 
 " What makes you think you aren't popular ? " 
 
 " I don't think it ; I know it. A fellow always 
 knows when he isn't liked." 
 
 "Get yourself liked, then," she said daunt- 
 lessly. 
 
 " I can't. I've tried it, after a fashion ; but I
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 137 
 
 won't toady, and I have about given it up. I 
 mean not to act as if I cared, and one can bluff 
 out most things ; but it is a little too much, when 
 it comes inside one's own house." 
 
 " What conies ? " Ursula asked blankly. 
 
 " The Pettijohn, and all that." 
 
 "But, Jackie, don't be so silly," she remon- 
 strated. " I only called you that in fun, because 
 Nathalie said it was your school nickname." 
 
 " Yes, and Rex Barrett gave it to me." 
 
 " "Well, suppose he did ? He hasn't the sole 
 right to its use ; has he ? " 
 
 " No ; but Confound it ! Can't you see 
 
 that the fellows wouldn't use it as they do, if 
 they liked me ? " 
 
 " How do you know they don't like you ? " 
 
 " "Watch them and see." 
 
 " Why don't they like you ? " she went on re- 
 morselessly, for she saw that her cousin was 
 really in trouble, and she resolved to do her best 
 to get to the bottom of that trouble. Then she 
 pulled aside her skirts invitingly. " Sit down 
 here, like a dear old boy, and tell me all about 
 it." 
 
 It was a girlish face that looked up at him ; 
 but the tone was maternal, and it soothed to 
 some extent the boy's irritation. Nevertheless, 
 his dignity demanded a final remonstrance.
 
 138 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 "I do wish you would attend to your own 
 affairs," he grumbled. 
 
 However, he took possession of the sofa corner 
 at her side. 
 
 She let him sit there while the silence grew 
 irksome to him. Then she said abruptly, 
 
 " Jack, I don't want to be a bore ; but I do 
 wish you would tell me what all this nonsense 
 is, about the boys not liking you." 
 
 He had thought she had abandoned the sub- 
 ject, and her sudden return to it took him by 
 surprise. His surprise led him into a frankness 
 which astonished even himself. 
 
 "I don't know as I blame them. In their 
 places, I shouldn't like the fellow I seem to be. 
 I can't help it ; it really isn't my fault. I can't 
 keep my mother from saying things and moon- 
 ing about me, as if I were the prince of milksops. 
 I hate it ; but the hating it doesn't do any good. 
 She says things, and the fellows get hold of 
 them, and of course they think I'm a fool. And 
 then I do hate baseball and those things, and I 
 like to have an occasional shampoo. And I 
 honestly like to study." 
 
 "You make yourself out a desperate case, 
 Jackie," Ursula said, as he paused for breath. 
 
 " But it is a fact. It has gone about among 
 the fellows that I'm a sissy, and they take it for
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 139 
 
 granted that the story is true, and let me alone. 
 I pretend I don't care. I don't, much ; but once 
 in a while I hear the things they say behind my 
 back, and it makes me furious. You know, 
 yourself, there's not a word of truth in them ; 
 now don't you ? " 
 
 Ursula flinched at the direct question. She 
 scorned fibbing ; but just now she did wish that 
 the truth were a shade less brutal. 
 
 " Don't you ? " John demanded again, as he 
 saw her hesitate. 
 
 She raised her eyes to his. 
 
 " Jackie," she said honestly ; " you mustn't be 
 too wrathy at me, when I say that, when I first 
 came here, you did seem to me deadly decorous. 
 Wait ! I said ' when I first came here.' That 
 doesn't mean now, for, the longer I know you, 
 the more I am finding out that you are a good 
 deal of a boy. I'm not quite sure I could get on 
 without you, Jack, even if I do tease the life out 
 of you. But, when I came here, I had been used 
 to boys that lived out of doors, that played ball 
 and went fishing barefoot, that built snow forts 
 and fought in them, too, that didn't have a de- 
 cent suit of clothes more than once in three or 
 four years. They were most mortally nice boys, 
 too ; and some of them knew as much about 
 books as you do. Then I came here, and found
 
 140 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 you always spick and span, always with a book 
 and never with a bat ; and Aunt Ursula told me 
 you were refined and delicate and well, you 
 looked it. You do look it, Jackie ; but it's only 
 skin deep." 
 
 "But I can't help my looks," he protested. 
 " You don't want me to go dirty ; do you ? " 
 
 In spite of herself, Ursula laughed at his tone. 
 
 " You couldn't, if you tried. It wouldn't stick 
 to you. Still, you needn't be too finicky." 
 
 John's chin rested on his hands, his elbows 
 on his knees, and he was scowling at the 
 floor. 
 
 "I don't know but I am priggy, Ursula. It 
 comes of being an only son, I suppose." 
 
 "It comes more from having a mother who 
 thinks nothing is quite good enough for you," 
 Ursula responded uncompromisingly. " She 
 would like to keep you in cotton wool under a 
 glass cover ; but it's not according to a state of 
 natur'. You're a boy, just an ordinary boy ; 
 and she may as well find it out and face the fact, 
 first as last." 
 
 " Do you know," John's tone was thoughtful ; 
 " it hasn't been half bad, your being here, Ursula. 
 You've stirred up things and made no end of a 
 row ; but, after all, I believe I should miss you, 
 if you went away."
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 141 
 
 Once more Ursula touched his hand. 
 
 " Ditto, Jackie," she said gravely. 
 
 Suddenly she rose and faced him. 
 
 " Jack, now see here ! Granted that your 
 well, your prigginess is only skin deep, and you 
 are all right underneath, how are we going to 
 make the boys see it as we do ? " 
 
 " We can't. Still, it is something to have you 
 admit it." 
 
 Ursula frowned. 
 
 "Precious little. They've got to admit it, 
 too. Likewise, you've got to improve, yourself. 
 There's room for it. But about the boys : they 
 must come here more." 
 
 " They won't." 
 
 "They will, if we ask them. Your mother 
 won't mind ; will she ? " 
 
 " No ; she would have a party, every week, if 
 I asked her." 
 
 Ursula shook her head. 
 
 " Parties aren't of any use. What you want 
 is to have a few of the boys get a trick of run- 
 ning in here. Who is the head one ? " 
 
 " I'm not sure. Kex Barrett used to be." 
 
 " But he wasn't in school." 
 
 " No ; but just the same he ruled all the fel- 
 lows who count for anything. He was the first 
 one "
 
 142 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 " To call you Pettijohn ? "Well, let him be the 
 first one to call you something else." 
 
 " How are you going to do it ? " 
 
 " The easiest thing in the world. He is com- 
 ing home, next week." 
 
 " What of it ? " 
 
 " Ask your mother to have him and Nathalie 
 here to dinner." 
 
 " He won't come." 
 
 " Why not ? " 
 
 " He's an awful snob." 
 
 Ursula frowned again. Upon certain points 
 she was obdurate. 
 
 " What of that ? That doesn't make any dif- 
 ference with us Thains. Besides, he will do 
 whatever Nathalie Arterburn says, and I know 
 she likes you." 
 
 " She never saw me but once." 
 
 " Stop interrupting. She liked you then. If 
 your mother invites them, they'll come. If they 
 
 once get here, I'll see to it that " she 
 
 dropped her downright tone, and cocked her 
 eyes at him saucily ; " that Rex Barrett wants 
 to come again. Trust me for that." There was 
 the shortest possible pause. Then her voice 
 grew gentle once more. " Are you very, very 
 wrathy at me now, Jackie ? "
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 143 
 
 CHAPTER ELEVEN 
 
 URSULA THAIN was neither mouse nor 
 man, yet it came to pass that her best- 
 laid plans did " gang aglae." The way of it was 
 this. 
 
 It had been the easiest thing in the world for 
 Ursula to gain her aunt's consent to her sugges- 
 tion that Nathalie Arterburn and Kingsley Bar- 
 rett should be bidden to dinner. The matter 
 was settled over the cereal, the next morning at 
 breakfast. Two hours later, Ursula started for 
 the Arterburns', sure of an easy victory all along 
 the line. 
 
 To her surprise, she found Nathalie a little 
 hostile to the idea. 
 
 " I'll come," she said promptly. " I'd like to. 
 I had a good time before, and I liked John im- 
 mensely, the day we went to walk. But truly, 
 Ursula, I can't promise for Rex. He doesn't ask 
 me about his invitations." 
 
 " He will about this one, though," Ursula pre- 
 dicted confidently. " If he does, I want you to 
 coax him to come."
 
 144 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 " But I don't see why I should. He is only to 
 be at home for three weeks and he has any num- 
 ber of friends." 
 
 Ursula dropped her voice impressively, as she 
 answered, 
 
 " That is just the point. John hasn't." 
 
 " I'm sorry," Nathalie said politely. " Still, I 
 really don't see what Hex can do about it." 
 
 " Don't you ? " Ursula bit her lip thought- 
 fully for a minute ; then she told over to Nath- 
 alie certain parts of her talk with John, the 
 evening before. 
 
 Nathalie listened intently. 
 
 " What night did you say ? " she asked at 
 length. 
 
 " When does he get here ? " 
 
 " Rex ? Next Wednesday." 
 
 " Saturday, then." 
 
 "Well," Nathalie said slowly. "I'll do the 
 very best I can." 
 
 Wednesday noon brought Kingsley Barrett 
 home. Over the lunch table, he submitted to 
 the adulations of his parents. Then he betook 
 himself in search of Nathalie Arterburn. He 
 found her, washing dishes, and he promptly set- 
 tled his tall person on the table in the diminutive 
 kitchen, where he swung his heels and recounted 
 to his hostess the latest tidings from the class.
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 145 
 
 They had not met since Thanksgiving, and there 
 was much to be told. 
 
 At length Nathalie shook out her dishcloth 
 with a sigh of relief, and hung up her apron. 
 
 " There ! " she said. " That is done, at last, so 
 now you can come into the parlor and let me 
 look at you." 
 
 Obediently he followed her into the parlor, 
 where he sent the shades whirring up to the top 
 of the windows, placed himself in the strong 
 sunshine and smilingly awaited her approval. In 
 her secret heart, she gave it unreservedly, for, 
 while he was by no means handsome, he was 
 goodly to look upon. Nevertheless, though her 
 eyes rested on him with perfect satisfaction, she 
 felt that it was not seemly for her to express that 
 satisfaction. 
 
 " Your necktie is shocking," she said. 
 
 " The latest thing from Chase's, ma'am." 
 
 " No matter. It isn't becoming, and I don't 
 especially like the collar." 
 
 His smile broadened. 
 
 " Sorry. What about me, myself ? " 
 
 She laughed and shook her head. 
 
 " The same old sixpence. I'm not sure, though, 
 that I'd care to change it for a brand-new shill- 
 ing." 
 
 His laugh echoed her own.
 
 146 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 "And we've three whole weeks to racket 
 around in. Won't it seem good ? We'll start in 
 right now. You and Mr. Arterburn are to do 
 dinner and the theatre with us, to-night. How is 
 the dear old fellow ? " 
 
 " Thriving and almost getting fat. He has a 
 new pupil, and we are living on the fleshpots, 
 nowadays." 
 
 " Oh, yes, I remember. The mater did write 
 to me about it. It's a country cousin of Petti- 
 john Myers ; isn't it ? " 
 
 " Yes. We do lessons together. I'm a forma- 
 tive influence." 
 
 " She must be in a bad way, then. Is she very 
 awful?" 
 
 She repelled the suggestion proudly. 
 
 " Hal doesn't take awful pupils." 
 
 Kingsley settled himself in the largest chair 
 which the room afforded. Even then, he over- 
 flowed the chair. 
 
 " He took me," he observed tranquilly. 
 
 " Yes, and you half killed him. But Ursula 
 isn't like you. She is really a very bright girl. 
 You can see for yourself, though. You and I 
 are to eat dinner with her, next Saturday." 
 
 " The deuce we are ! " Kingsley sat up abruptly. 
 
 Nathalie leaned back in her chair and spoke 
 with a matter-of-course indifference.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 147 
 
 " Yes, I accepted for us both. I couldn't well 
 get out of it, and I knew you would stand by 
 me." 
 
 "Not if the court knows herself," Kingsley 
 replied energetically. 
 
 " But she is pretty." 
 
 " He isn't." 
 
 " Who is He f " 
 
 " Pettijohn Myers." 
 
 " But I shall talk to him. You can play the 
 agreeable to her, and, as I say, she is very 
 pretty." 
 
 " Don't care." 
 
 " And she knows how to dress." 
 
 " Let her." 
 
 " And we needn't stay so very late." 
 
 " You bet we won't ! We'll go away, just a 
 few minutes before we get there," Kingsley re- 
 sponded. 
 
 Nathalie shook her yellow head at him disap- 
 provingly. 
 
 "Kex, you must go, there's a good boy. I 
 have promised, and I can't go alone." 
 
 Kingsley was on his legs, by this time. No 
 man, not even a student, attempts to refuse a 
 woman's request, while he is seated. 
 
 " Now look here, Nathalie," he protested ; 
 " I'll do a good deal for you. I have done some
 
 148 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 of it already. I've lugged charity bundles down 
 town in New York for you ; and I have hunted 
 slums in London with you. Once upon a time, I 
 even toted a mongrel cur the length and breadth 
 of Fifth Avenue in your behalf. I have done all 
 that; but I must draw the line somewhere. I 
 will not go with you to gnaw any bones pro- 
 vided by Petti John Myers." 
 
 A mocking dimple showed itself in Nathalie's 
 cheek. Kingsley was very large, very impress- 
 ive ; but she had heard him protest before. 
 
 " Kex," she said severely ; " you were alwa}^s 
 a snob ; but you ought to have learned better by 
 this time. What has your college life done for 
 you, if it hasn't taught you not to be snobbish ? " 
 
 " It has taught me to loathe prigs and to abhor 
 grinds," he answered calmly. " Pettijohn Myers 
 is both." 
 
 Nathalie rose, as if to end the discussion. 
 
 " Pettijohn Myers is not half bad, and he has 
 a cousin who is really worth seeing. It won't 
 last very long, anyway, and I have promised for 
 us both. You may as well give in gracefully, for 
 you are going." 
 
 Kingsley surveyed her from the lofty summit 
 of his academic dignity. 
 
 " Oh, by Jove, Nathalie, you " 
 
 But she interrupted him saucily.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 149 
 
 "And please do wear some other kind of a 
 necktie. I should hate to have you appear in 
 that hangman's knot. You never could live it 
 down." 
 
 Twilight falls early in December, and by five 
 o'clock of the next Saturday afternoon, the Myers 
 house was lighted for the coming guests. Ursula 
 took one last look at the rooms, inspected the 
 American Beauty roses for the dinner table, and 
 then went to her room to dress for the great event. 
 
 It must be confessed that, by this time, Ursula's 
 dressing was a longer operation than it had been 
 in Lucre tia. An injudicious aunt and a large plate- 
 glass mirror had been unknown quantities in the 
 little Iowa parsonage, and both of them of late 
 had been suggesting to Ursula that not only was 
 she pretty, but that even a pretty girl could be 
 improved by careful dressing. Moreover, it was 
 much more interesting work to dress, now that 
 one's toilet accessories were of ivory and decorated 
 with one's own monogram in great black letters. 
 Ursula took to luxury, as a duck takes to water, 
 naturally and with swiftness. 
 
 To-night, she was wearing a new gown for the 
 first time. It had only come home, late that 
 afternoon, and Ursula, as she hooked and but- 
 toned and tied herself into it and then turned 
 herself this way and that, could not help wishing
 
 150 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 that her mother and Molly could see her in her 
 finery. Poor Molly ! Molly's winter gown was 
 one of her own, hemmed up to fit the shorter 
 legs of its new wearer. It was very much 
 trimmed, too, and the lines all ran round and 
 round, as if to emphasize the pudgy curves of a 
 growing girl. 
 
 Ursula patted her well-fitting shoulders con- 
 tentedly, and her lip curled a little, at the 
 thought of that dowdy, over-trimmed gown 
 which was doomed to pass on down the line 
 of young Thains from Molly to Baby Jane. 
 Then she rebuked herself sharply. More loving 
 thought had gone into those patient stitches 
 than into all the new gowns she had had since 
 she came to New York. 
 
 Abruptly she pulled open a bureau drawer and 
 took out a box. Inside the box was another 
 of yellowing white paper, shiny and with silver 
 edges. She opened the inner box and lifted out 
 a thin, old-fashioned locket hanging from a 
 slender chain. For one minute, she held it unde- 
 cidedly. Then she took off her gold beads, 
 clasped the chain around her neck and, bending 
 her head, rubbed the locket caressingly against 
 her cheek. 
 
 Five minutes later, she followed her aunt 
 down-stairs.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 151 
 
 " Come here, Ursula," Mrs. Myers called. " I 
 want to see your gown." 
 
 Ursula presented herself, smiling, and waited 
 for approval. According to her custom, her 
 aunt looked her over in detail ; but, this time, 
 she began at her feet. 
 
 " You changed your shoes ? That's right. 
 Your skirt hangs beautifully. Yiger always 
 succeeds there. It is good shape over the hips, 
 too. Those new sleeves are certainly very 
 pretty. I think I'll have some of them. And 
 
 your What in the world have you strung 
 
 around your neck ? " 
 
 "It's my locket." 
 
 "I should call it a tin plate. Where did 
 you ever get it ? " 
 
 Ursula's eyes flashed ominously ; but she only 
 said, 
 
 "My mother gave it to me. It is one my 
 father gave her, when they were engaged. It 
 has both their pictures in it." 
 
 " It looks as if it might hold the whole 
 family. Let me see it. Well, run and take 
 it off." 
 
 " But I'm going to wear it." 
 
 Her aunt laughed gently. 
 
 " Oh, no ; I wouldn't." 
 
 " I want to."
 
 152 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 "You can't wear that thing, Ursula. It is 
 a perfect cartwheel. You look as if you were 
 wearing a breastplate." 
 
 Ursula undertook to argue with her aunt. 
 
 "It was my mother's, and she gave it to 
 me." 
 
 " That may be ; but she didn't expect you to 
 wear it." 
 
 " Yes, she did. She said I could wear it some- 
 times, when I needed to dress up." 
 
 Mrs. Myers winced at the closing phrase. 
 
 " Nice people never dress up, Ursula." 
 
 "Why not? I'm dressed up now," she an- 
 swered rebelliously. 
 
 " No ; you are dressed." 
 
 " Of course I am. I should hope I wasn't un- 
 dressed," Ursula responded, with some spirit. 
 
 Mrs. Myers waived that question and returned 
 to the first issue. 
 
 "You'd better take the locket off now, Ur- 
 sula." 
 
 "I told you I was going to wear it. It 
 was my mother's, and she gave it to me to wear 
 when I was dressed up. It was the only piece 
 of jewelry she had, except her cameo bracelet, 
 and she said I was too young for that," Ursula 
 explained hotly. 
 
 " I am glad she had so much sense," Mrs.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 153 
 
 Myers answered a little rashly, for she had scant 
 respect for the taste of her sister-in-law. 
 
 " What do you mean by that ? " Ursula de- 
 manded. 
 
 " I mean that your mother has lived out of the 
 world for so long that she doesn't know just 
 what is proper or suitable for you here. That 
 locket is entirely unsuitable for a girl like you to 
 wear." 
 
 " I can't help that." 
 
 " And it spoils your gown." 
 
 " Let it." 
 
 "And young girls should never wear lock- 
 ets." 
 
 " I am going to wear this. My mother said I 
 might." 
 
 " Ursula ! " Mrs. Myers spoke with decision, 
 for her patience was exhausted. In her eyes, 
 the locket was as preposterous as it was unsuited 
 to the neck of a schoolgirl, and she was de- 
 termined that no Kingsley Barrett should ever 
 look upon such a hideous adjunct to the pretty 
 toilet of her pretty niece. 
 
 Ursula answered flatly, for she too was be- 
 coming reckless. 
 
 " What, ma'am ? " 
 
 " Go to your room at once and take off the 
 locket. I wish you to obey me, and to obey me
 
 154 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 promptly, for it is almost time that Nathalie 
 and her friend were here." 
 
 It was the first time she had ever spoken 
 to Ursula in that tone, and the girl resented 
 it bitterly. The blood rushed to her face, and a 
 little angry shiver ran across her shoulders ; but 
 she controlled herself and turned away, her eyes 
 blazing, her chin in the air, furious, dauntless, 
 but wounded to the quick. She crossed the 
 room and went up the stairs with steady delib- 
 eration. Once inside her room, however, she 
 rushed across the floor and cast herself down 
 upon the foot of her bed. 
 
 The pink roses on the walls had faced no such 
 storm before. It came in gusts, and the girl 
 writhed with their fury. It was cruel, she told 
 herself, to grudge her this one bit of sentiment, to 
 speak of her mother with this scorn, to tie her 
 down by the laws of a life which, for the moment, 
 she hated with all the fervor of her passionate 
 little nature. Rising on her elbow, she opened 
 the locket and looked long at the faces within, at 
 her mother, quiet and steadfast even in her girl- 
 ishness, at her father whose young eyes looked 
 back at her with a fire like that which was burn- 
 ing in her own. She covered the faces with 
 hasty, nervous kisses ; yet the sight of them took 
 away somewhat of the bitterness from her crying,
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 155 
 
 and left in its place an utter homesickness. She 
 had been so happy at home. The old life had 
 been pinched and meagre ; yet in a sense it was 
 fuller than any she had known in New York. 
 Her mother might be ignorant of the ways of 
 the world ; but at least she did know the ways 
 which led to healthy living. And her face, in 
 spite of the wrinkles, was so good to look into. 
 Ursula buried her own face in her arms once 
 more, quite regardless of the fact that her puffy 
 new sleeves were all crushed and spotted with 
 her tears. 
 
 Vaguely and as if in a dream, she heard the 
 bell ring, and then the voices in the hall ; but 
 she was too exhausted with crying, too utterly 
 wretched to heed them. She roused herself, 
 however, when there came a rap upon her door. 
 
 "Miss Ursula," Maggie was saying; "Mrs. 
 Myers says that Miss Arterburn is here, and that 
 you are to come down at once." 
 
 Unbeknown to herself, the maid's voice echoed 
 something of the sharpness which had rung in 
 the tone of her mistress, when the order had 
 been given. It struck Ursula like a knife, and 
 it cut away all her coming gentleness. She 
 sprang up angrily, took one or two turns up and 
 down the room, then paused before her mirror 
 and stared at herself, at her swollen face, at her
 
 156 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 crushed and tear-stained gown. For a moment, 
 the tears hung on her lashes again ; then the 
 lips beneath shut together in a resolute line, and 
 she began untying, unbuttoning and unhooking 
 herself with a steely determination. 
 
 Down-stairs in the parlor, her aunt was fast 
 becoming nervous, as moment after moment 
 passed by, and no Ursula appeared. Nathalie, 
 dainty as ever in her same rose-colored gown, was 
 chattering gayly to John who was manifestly at 
 his best, that night. Mrs. Myers herself was 
 trying to entertain Kingsley Barrett, and she 
 was fully aware that her young guest was feel- 
 ing himself badly bored. The Kingsley Barrett 
 who had sat upon Nathalie Arterburn's kitchen 
 table was quite another Kingsley from the youth 
 who occupied Mrs. Myers's cream-colored satin 
 chair and wrapped himself in the mantle of his 
 freshman dignity. He was perfectly polite, also 
 perfectly inaccessible. Mrs. Myers wondered 
 impatiently if her niece had fallen asleep. 
 
 At last Ursula's step was heard on the stairs, 
 and four pairs of eyes sought the door expect- 
 antly. The next instant, four pairs of lungs 
 gasped, and the eyes widened in consternation. 
 
 With her cheeks blazing, her eyes shining like 
 incandescent lights and her lips shut firmly to- 
 gether, Ursula stood on the parlor threshold.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 157 
 
 Above her bunchy brown skirt was a vivid 
 magenta bodice, crossed with lines of rusty black 
 velvet. A blue satin ribbon was around her 
 neck, and on the front of the magenta bodice, 
 like a huge and fishy eye, gleamed a thin locket 
 of pale, old-fashioned gold.
 
 158 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 CHAPTER TWELYE 
 
 "X TOTWITHSTANDING the fact that lessons 
 J. N had been abandoned during the holidays, 
 the next Monday morning found Ursula on her 
 way to the Arterburns' apartment. Half a 
 block from the door, she met Nathalie and her 
 brother. 
 
 " Oh, you are just going out ! " she exclaimed 
 in obvious disappointment. 
 
 " Not for very long. I must go down town 
 with Harry ; but I'm not going to stay," Nath- 
 alie answered. " If you aren't in a hurry, why 
 don't you take my key, and go in and wait till I 
 get back ? " 
 
 "I don't know," Ursula said hesitatingly. 
 " Are you sure you won't hurry back on my ac- 
 count ? " 
 
 " I can't. "We have an engagement with Dr. 
 Holden, and we must keep it, of course. It 
 won't take very long, though." 
 
 "I'll wait, then. I did want to see you 
 so much." Ursula's voice broke on the last 
 words.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 159 
 
 Harry Arterburn laughed a little, as they 
 passed on out of hearing. 
 
 " Poor little tornado ! She looks as if she had 
 had a hard time, the last day or two." 
 
 " She had a hard time, that night," Nathalie 
 responded feelingly. " Mrs. Myers, without 
 making the least social break, contrived to im- 
 press upon us all that Ursula was to be sent to 
 Coventry." 
 
 " How did Ursula go through it ? " 
 
 " With splendid grit. She was perfectly polite 
 to her aunt ; but she didn't give in one inch to 
 her. I really think she wasn't half so frightened 
 as I was." 
 
 Harry shook his head in dissent. 
 
 "You can't always tell about Ursula Thain. 
 In a way, she is a little tempest ; but she has 
 great self-control. She is a queer compound ; but 
 she has good stuff in her. What set her off, in 
 the first place ? " 
 
 " I haven't any idea. Neither had John. I 
 asked him, and he showed that he wasn't fibbing, 
 when he said he didn't know. I think she will 
 tell me, this morning. She generally does tell 
 me things, and this is the first chance she has 
 had. But, Harry, such a picture as she was ! " 
 
 " I can imagine." 
 
 " No ; you can't. You can't have any idea of
 
 160 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 those preposterous clothes. Outside of a night- 
 mare, you never saw the like of them. And yet 
 it seems to me I saw that same combination of 
 colors once before. But do you realize that I had 
 coaxed Rex Barrett to go, on the plea that she 
 was pretty and well-dressed enough to pay for 
 seeing ? " 
 
 " What did Rex do ? " 
 
 Nathalie laughed at the memory. 
 
 " I never shall forget the way he looked, when 
 she came in, with her face swollen and red as a 
 lobster. She must have been crying her eyes 
 out, up-stairs. You see, it was ages before she 
 came down. I talked to John, and Mrs. Myers 
 tried to talk to Rex. She tried so hard that she 
 disgusted him, and he behaved like a bored clam, 
 sat up straight and stiff with his chin hooked 
 over the edge of his tall collar, and wouldn't 
 say anything. I knew he was hating her, for 
 she kept saying things were ' nice ' ; and I did 
 wish Ursula would hurry up." 
 
 " And, when she did come, you wished she had 
 stayed away ? " her brother suggested. 
 
 " No ; for then the fun began. "When she first 
 came in sight, Rex was so astonished that his 
 eyes fairly goggled at her. But Mrs. Myers be- 
 gan snubbing her as soon as she appeared ; and 
 Rex, in sheer contradictiousness and just to spite
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 161 
 
 Mrs. Myers, began to play the agreeable to Ur- 
 sula. He treated her as if she had been Cinder- 
 ella herself, till I was half jealous of her. You 
 know he always could be perfectly fascinating 
 when he chose, and he has ever so many new airs 
 and graces, since he came home, this time." 
 
 " How did Mrs. Myers take it ? " 
 
 " She appeared to think that Kex was doing it 
 all to spare her feelings, so, the more he devoted 
 himself to Ursula, the more she smiled on him 
 and snubbed her, and that made Rex all the more 
 killing in his manners. I did so wish you were 
 there to see it all ; it was like being the one per- 
 son in the audience at a really good theatre. I 
 wanted somebody to hit elbows with." 
 
 " What did Rex say afterwards ? " 
 
 " That was the strangest part of the whole," 
 Nathalie answered reflectively. " He just didn't 
 seem to want to say anything about it. He 
 talked about football, all the way home." 
 
 " Hm ! " Harry commented thoughtfully. 
 " That fellow is a gentleman." 
 
 " I could have told you that before," his sister 
 answered quickly. 
 
 They were in the car and half way down town, 
 before they spoke again. Then Nathalie broke 
 the long pause. 
 
 " Hal, I do wish you would talk to Ursula."
 
 162 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 "I? What for?" 
 
 "Because there isn't anybody else. I don't 
 think Ursula is quite happy here, for all she is so 
 full of fun. She has days when she is as home- 
 sick as she can be, and I know she misses her 
 father. She has told me so." 
 
 Harry Arterburn looked at his sister's intent 
 face, and smiled. 
 
 " But really I'm not quite ready to take the 
 place of a father to her, chum." 
 
 "No; and yet you might. She needs some 
 older person to talk things over with, and she 
 hasn't anybody. I'm not old enough, and her 
 aunt doesn't understand things." 
 
 " What about her uncle ? " 
 
 Nathalie dismissed Mr. Myers with a shrug of 
 her shoulders. 
 
 " Oh, he is too busy, making money." 
 
 " Or losing it," Harry suggested carelessly. 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 Instantly he repented his ill-considered words. 
 
 " Don't speak of it please, Nathalie," he said 
 quickly. " It may be nothing at all. I have 
 happened to hear a rumor that Myers and Heath 
 are getting a little shaky ; but I had no business 
 to mention it." 
 
 " Oh, I hope not. It would be horrid for such 
 people to go poor ; they wouldn't have any sense
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 163 
 
 about getting used to it. But Ursula has been 
 trained to another kind of living." 
 
 "Yes. The Thains evidently cared more for 
 books and brains than for gowns and goodies, and 
 I can see that her aunt's point of view might be 
 irritating to her. Still, the girl has no right to 
 accept so much from Mrs. Myers, and then turn 
 defiant in the middle of it." 
 
 " That's just what I want you to say to her," 
 Nathalie assented gravely. " Some one really 
 ought to do it, and there isn't anybody else." 
 
 " I wish Mrs. Barrett would take her in hand." 
 
 " So do I ; but I haven't any idea that she will. 
 Mrs. Barrett isn't sufficiently devoted to Mrs. 
 Myers to care much about knowing Mrs. Myers's 
 poor relations." 
 
 " Steady, Nathalie ! " her brother advised her. 
 " We aren't in a position to talk about poor rela- 
 tions, and Mrs. Barrett has done everything for 
 us." 
 
 Ursula, meanwhile, before the Arterburns' 
 glowing grate, was forgetting her woes and her 
 worries over a book. The woes were none the 
 less real, however, nor the worries less insistent. 
 The past thirty-six hours had been hours of 
 wretchedness to Ursula Thain. The nervous re- 
 action from her passionate outburst had left her 
 feeling homesick, forlorn and physically ex-
 
 164 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 hausted ; and it had taken all her courage to go 
 through the evening without breaking down. 
 Again and again she longed for the time when 
 her guests should say good-night ; yet the misery 
 of entertaining them had been only a prelude to 
 the misery which had followed when her aunt, 
 with merciless frankness, had explained to her 
 how she had looked as she had entered the room. 
 Mrs. Myers was mistress of her temper, but not 
 of her sarcasm, and Ursula had writhed in spirit 
 under her rebukes. As a matter of course, she 
 had cried herself to sleep, that night ; but sleep 
 cures many sorrows, and Ursula, had appeared at 
 breakfast, the next morning, fully expecting to 
 be received as cordially as if nothing unseemly 
 had occurred. Instead of that, she had been met 
 with coldness upon all sides. Mrs. Myers was 
 still rather indignant at her niece, and, under his 
 mother's eye, John dared make no overtures of 
 friendship. As soon as breakfast was over, he 
 went in pursuit of his cousin ; but Ursula, in 
 bitter resentment, had taken herself out of the 
 way, and he saw her no more until time for 
 lunch. 
 
 Ursula thought over a good many things, as 
 she sat in her room, that Sunday morning, with 
 the open locket before her. Twice she began a 
 letter to her parents, telling them the whole
 
 UfiSULA'S FRESHMAN 165 
 
 story and demanding to be taken home. Twice 
 she destroyed the half-written letter. Three 
 months before this time, her mother had pre- 
 dicted just such a day as this, and had bidden 
 her, when that day came, to shut her teeth and 
 remember mother and stick it out till she felt 
 better. The memory called for more looking at 
 the locket and more tears, and so the morning 
 had dragged away. 
 
 As she had left the dining-room after a stiff 
 and silent lunch, John had caught her hand in a 
 grip which left her fingers aching for an hour 
 afterwards. The grip was consoling and, for 
 some illogical reason, it changed her point of 
 view and made her wonder for the first time 
 whether she herself might not have been a little 
 bit to blame. As her aunt's guest, perhaps she 
 might have accepted in silence her aunt's advice 
 concerning a small matter of dress. And had 
 not her intended revenge upon her aunt acted 
 like a boomerang and humiliated herself ? She 
 had promised John that, once Kingsley Barrett 
 was in the house, she would see to it that he 
 wished to come again. And how had she kept 
 her promise ? She blushed hotly at the memory 
 of the tall, keen-eyed freshman who had treated 
 her hideous self with such absolute respect. 
 Then, all at once, she made up her mind to pour
 
 166 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 the whole story into Nathalie Arterburn's ears, 
 and to ask for her sympathy and counsel. 
 
 Just as she paused to turn a leaf, the bell 
 whirred violently. Ursula hesitated for a mo- 
 ment ; then, as she reflected that she was in pos- 
 session of Nathalie's latchkey, she decided that 
 Nathalie had come home and that it would be 
 well to let her into the apartment. Dropping 
 her book, she rose and opened the door, with an 
 eager, 
 
 "Oh, I began to think you never would 
 come ! " 
 
 Then she drew back in astonishment, for her 
 eyes rested, not upon the Nathalie Arterburn 
 whom she had expected; but on the Kingsley 
 Barrett whom she had been seeking to dismiss 
 from her mind. 
 
 On his own side, Kingsley was scarcely less 
 surprised. In spite of his evident enjoyment of 
 the situation, the Saturday evening before, he 
 had felt no especial aesthetic pleasure in the 
 badly-dressed girl with the tear-stained face, and 
 he had constituted himself her champion, as 
 Nathalie had surmised, merely in a spirit of op- 
 position to Mrs. Myers. He had liked Ursula's 
 grit and her independence. Otherwise he had 
 scarcely bestowed upon her a second thought. 
 Frumpy brown-haired girls were to be seen, any
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 167 
 
 day ; he preferred Nathalie Arterburn's golden 
 hair and dainty habits. 
 
 He too had expected to see Nathalie, when the 
 door opened. Instead of that, he saw a slender 
 girlish figure dressed by some artist hand, and a 
 brilliant girlish face above a loosened collar of 
 fluffy brown fur. From under the brim of a 
 broad brown hat, two brown eyes smiled up at 
 him with evident recognition ; but there was 
 no answering recognition in Kingsley Barrett's 
 eyes, as they stared down at the girl before 
 him. 
 
 The girl's smile faded. 
 
 " Mr. Eex Barrett, I think ? " she said inter- 
 rogatively. 
 
 " Yes. Is Miss Arterburn at home ? " 
 
 " I am expecting her, every minute. Will you 
 come in and wait ? " 
 
 Clothes make the man, likewise the woman. 
 Kingsley Barrett was cudgelling his brains for 
 the name of the girl. Both her voice and her 
 eyes were familiar, and she knew him. Where 
 could he have met this irreproachable maiden ; 
 and how, once having met her, could he have for- 
 gotten her again ? 
 
 " I think you'd better wait. It won't be long 
 now," she was adding. 
 
 And Kingsley, determined to find out who she
 
 168 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 was, walked into the parlor, hat in hand, and es- 
 tablished himself in his favorite chair. 
 
 " Haf e you seen Miss Arterburn, this morn- 
 ing ? " he asked. 
 
 "Yes, I met her just outside the door, and she 
 gave me the key to come in and wait. She and 
 her brother had an engagement with Dr. 
 Holden." 
 
 " Queer thing Mac didn't tell me ! " Kingsley 
 soliloquized. 
 
 " I beg your pardon ? " 
 
 "I just came from Dr. Holden's office, and he 
 didn't say anything about it. He might have 
 known I would be coming here," Kingsley ex- 
 plained. 
 
 It seemed to Ursula that the explanation 
 needed no comment, and the silence between 
 them broadened. Kingsley would have liked to 
 break it ; but he dared make no leading remark, 
 lest it should betray his ignorance in regard to 
 his companion's identity. 
 
 " It's a superb sort of day," he observed tenta- 
 tively at length. 
 
 " Very," Ursula assented. 
 
 " Have you " He interrupted himself with 
 
 a sudden fit of coughing. 
 
 Ursula waited. 
 
 " Well ? " she asked politely, after an interval.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 169 
 
 " Have you er been skating, this winter ? " 
 Kingsley asked desperately. 
 
 " No. My cousin is to take me, to-mo|row." 
 
 " Cousin ? Now who the deuce has a cousin ? " 
 Kingsley queried blankly of himself. Then he 
 went on, " It was fine skating at New Haven, 
 when I left. You've been there ; haven't you ? " 
 
 The question appeared to amuse her. 
 
 "Been there! I should think I had. That 
 was the first place that I ever saw you." 
 
 Kingsley looked slightly abashed. 
 
 " Of course. How stupid of me to forget it ! " 
 
 " Did you remember it, too ? " 
 
 "Do you suppose I forget things of that 
 kind?" he asked tactfully. " Not even a fresh- 
 man does that." 
 
 Ursula laughed again. 
 
 " Did you ever know that I took you for a 
 senior ? " 
 
 " By Jove, no ! That must have been before 
 you danced with me, though." 
 
 She looked up at him keenly. 
 
 " When did I dance with you ? " 
 
 It occurred to Kingsley that his companion's 
 chaff was taking a curious form. However, he 
 had no intention of carrying off the situation up 
 to this point, merely in order to ruin it now. 
 
 " Why that first time I saw you, of course."
 
 170 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 Ursula's mouth puckered ominously. 
 
 " I don't know how it is with you, Mr. Bar- 
 rett ; but, as a rule, I don't dance in street cars 
 with strange young men." 
 
 Kingsley stared at her for a moment, still puz- 
 zling over the familiar voice. Then, leaning 
 back in his chair, he burst out into a jovial laugh. 
 
 " Well, I've given myself away, this time," he 
 said. " I may as well 'fess up to it that I don't 
 have any idea who you are. I thought I could 
 bluff it out till Nathalie came ; but I have spoiled 
 all that now." 
 
 She looked up at him, half in amusement, half 
 in offended vanity. 
 
 " Your memory isn't very long, then. I am 
 Ursula Thain." 
 
 If Ursula had attempted to pass herself off for 
 the late Queen Victoria of England, Kingsley 
 could have been no more surprised. He rallied 
 swiftly, however. 
 
 " Then I am no end glad I met you again," he 
 said heartily, and with an utter truthfulness 
 whose meaning Ursula would have been at a loss 
 to fathom. 
 
 "If that means you had a good time, I am 
 very glad," she answered demurely. 
 
 " Of course I had a good time. Didn't you ? " 
 
 " No," she replied bluntly. " Horrid."
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 171 
 
 " I am sorry. You didn't look it." 
 
 " Then my looks belied me, bad as they were," 
 she answered a little aggressively. 
 
 Kingsley watched her in amusement. Her 
 beauty and her daintiness, coupled with her in- 
 trepid frankness, were interesting to him, and he 
 began to wonder what she would say next. 
 After a slight pause, she solved the problem 
 rather unsatisfactorily by changing the subject. 
 
 "Isn't Nathalie a wonderful girl? Doesn't 
 she ever make you wish you were just like 
 her?" 
 
 Kingsley's voice was grave ; but his gray eyes 
 twinkled, as he answered, 
 
 " I never pine for impossible things, Miss 
 Ursula." 
 
 " I do. I'd like to be exactly like Nathalie ; 
 but it's no use. We are as different as a sweet 
 apple and a red pepper. I wonder if she ever 
 gets real downright, tearing angry. I don't be- 
 lieve she does." 
 
 Kingsley searched the recesses of his memory. 
 
 " I never saw her do it." 
 
 "That's where she has the advantage. Most 
 people do. Even Jack loses his temper, once in 
 a while." 
 
 "Jack?" 
 
 " Yes, my cousin."
 
 172 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 " Oh, Petti " Kingsley checked himself 
 
 abruptly ; but he was too late. 
 
 "Yes, my cousin, Jack Myers," Ursula said 
 severely. "I am very fond of him. Don't you 
 like him?" 
 
 "Yes. He is a good boy," Kingsley an- 
 swered, with the face of one who has been 
 forced to swallow a tablespoonful of molasses. 
 
 Ursula noted the tone ; but scorned to notice it. 
 
 "I am so glad to hear you say so," she 
 said sweetly. " He is a dear boy, even if he is a 
 frightful tease. He keeps the house stirring, all 
 day long, and I don't know how I could bear to 
 be away from home, if it were not for him." 
 
 " Yes ? " Kingsley longed to ask her for 
 further particulars concerning this vivacious 
 John Myers. "You are great chums, I sup- 
 pose ? " 
 
 Ursula laughed. Her eyes were dancing now, 
 and, quite unconsciously, she was looking her 
 very best. Again Kingsley sought to connect 
 her with the tear-stained, magenta vision of the 
 previous Saturday evening, and with that other 
 vision the memory of which had flashed into his 
 mind as he beheld her, a vision of a bunchy girl 
 and a thin-faced man with lambent eyes, a Phi 
 Beta Kappa charm and a tin skillet partially 
 filled with dripping clams.
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 173 
 
 " Jack and I do everything together," Ursula 
 was saying. " He gets me into all sorts of 
 mischief now and then, for I am only a country 
 girl and a Westerner at that, and I don't know 
 the ways of the place, as he does." 
 
 " Are you from the West ? " 
 
 " From Lucretia, Iowa." 
 
 Kingsley gave a swift glance at her, covering 
 her from head to heel. 
 
 "You aren't like any Western girl I ever 
 saw." 
 
 She laughed again. 
 
 "There are all kinds there, just as there 
 are here ; and there are all sorts of grades of the 
 West. Iowa isn't Idaho." Then she rose. " I 
 really think I'd better not wait any longer," she 
 said. " Please tell Nathalie that I had to go. 
 Perhaps you would be willing to do my errand 
 for me. Jack and I are planning to come here 
 to play cards, some night this week. Ask her to 
 send me word, please, what night she wants us." 
 
 Kingsley held out his hand in farewell. 
 
 " It takes four to play most games." 
 
 She smiled saucily up at him. 
 
 " Perhaps Mr. Arterburn won't be too busy." 
 
 " But he will, I know. I'll tell you what, 
 Miss Ursula; I'll do your errand on condition 
 that you will let me come, too."
 
 174 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 CHAPTER THIRTEEN 
 
 ON the last night of Kingsley Barrett's holi- 
 days, the unexpected happened. Mrs. 
 Gifford Barrett invited to dine with her, that 
 night, the two Arterburns, Ursula Thain and 
 John Myers ; and, in consequence of that invita- 
 tion, Mrs. Myers grew at least two inches in her 
 own estimation of her own social stature. 
 
 "Don't do it, unless you want to, mater," 
 Kingsley advised, while he put his elbows on the 
 table and blinked at her over his clenched 
 fists. 
 
 " I can't say that life will be a desert unto me, 
 without the Myers contingent," his mother re- 
 sponded, as she poured out his coffee. "Still, 
 I really can't see how I can help asking them." 
 
 Kingsley stirred his coffee thoughtfully. 
 
 " Nobody makes you," he observed at length. 
 
 "Yes, you and Nathalie do. Oh, that my 
 enemies should be of my household ! Rex, you 
 are a good boy ; but you have contrived to upset 
 all my long-cherished theories." 
 
 " As to what ? "
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 175 
 
 " An abiding horror of Mrs. Myers. She 
 buzzes me like a piece of plush." 
 
 Mr. Barrett looked up from his paper. 
 
 " What now, Babe ? " he asked. 
 
 " I am about to sacrifice myself upon the altar 
 of maternal dut/. Your son has been playing 
 with that preposterous Myers lad. He is not a 
 boy ; he's a lad," Mrs. Barrett added viciously. 
 
 "In the vernacular of your son, he is a sad 
 lad," Mr. Barrett said, laughing. " I am sorry 
 that your son has such lowly tastes ; but what of 
 it?" 
 
 " Nothing ; only that, if your son will accept 
 Myers invitations, the Myers contingent must at 
 least have the chance to decline a Barrett invi- 
 tation." 
 
 " Apparently neither one of you is willing to 
 acknowledge me," Kingsley observed plaintively. 
 
 " Of course not, when you choose such com- 
 panions. I don't wish you to be dissipated and 
 take to strong drinks ; but Pettijohn Myers 
 is nothing," Mrs. Barrett waved her spoon in the 
 air ; " nothing but postum cereal." 
 
 " Yes." Kingsley spoke meditatively. 
 
 " And I have noticed that you generally have 
 had an appetite for black coffee, twice a day. 
 When did you develop your fondness for gruel ? " 
 
 " Don't worry, mater. Gruel is good for the
 
 176 URSULA'S FUESHMAN 
 
 nerves. But for a fact, now, Pettijolm Myers 
 has got a good deal of the Jack in him ; and, 
 what is more to the purpose, Pettijack Myers 
 has a stunningly pretty cousin." 
 
 " Oh, I begin to understand now," Mr. Barrett 
 said thoughtfully. 
 
 " I don't, then," Mrs. Barrett interposed. 
 "According to Nathalie, I saw the girl once." 
 
 " Up at New Haven," Kingsley admitted. " I 
 remember it ; but that was before she had been 
 introduced to a tailor. Of course, I haven't any 
 use for home-made girls." 
 
 His mother shook her head at him. 
 
 " Please to remember that I manufactured the 
 gown I wore to the opera, last night," she re- 
 minded him. 
 
 Kingsley smiled in full approval. 
 
 " Oh yes ; you ! " he answered, and his mother 
 felt that life could hold for her few sweeter com- 
 pliments than the one veiled in those three 
 words. 
 
 It had been agreed that Ursula and her cousin 
 should call for the Arterburns, on the night of 
 the dinner ; and, promptly at the moment, Nath- 
 alie heard the bell. 
 
 " I am so glad you are early," she said, as she 
 opened the door. "Harry will be ready in a 
 minute, and then I'm going to suggest our walk-
 
 URSULA'S FEESHMAN 177 
 
 ing down town. We have plenty of time, and 
 Hal has been working until he is tired out. The 
 walk will set him up wonderfully. Shall you 
 mind so very much ? " 
 
 " Not a bit. It is a glorious night, cold and 
 so windy that Jack and I ran races all the way 
 over, because it was easier to run ahead of the 
 wind than to hold back against it," Ursula an- 
 swered, while she walked into the parlor and 
 seated herself, blissfully unconscious of the fact 
 that her hat was much awry. 
 
 Nathalie straightened it for her. 
 
 " You look like a small gipsy," she suggested. 
 " Take off your coat and let me see your gown. 
 It appears to be another new one." 
 
 " It is new. Isn't it pretty ? " Ursula said 
 with frank pleasure, as she slid out of the dark 
 coat that came to her ankles. 
 
 Nathalie gave an adjusting pat or two to the 
 dainty green gown, simple and girlish, yet show- 
 ing in its every fold that it was the work of an 
 expert. 
 
 " It is lovely," she said, with a little accent of 
 regret. " I wonder how it would feel to have 
 gowns like that." 
 
 " It feels exactly like being a wax doll that 
 somebody dresses and undresses, whenever she 
 feels like it," Ursula answered. " I love pretty
 
 178 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 clothes; but I'm not sure I care so much for 
 them, now that all anybody has to do about 
 them is to pay the bill. Yours is as pretty as 
 mine, and it counts for a great deal more." And 
 she smiled approvingly at Nathalie's rose-colored 
 gown which was bound to do faithful service on 
 many an occasion yet to come. 
 
 But John interrupted. 
 
 " If that is the way you feel about it, Ursula, 
 I'll tell my mother not to pay the bills at all," 
 he suggested amicably, quite unaware of the fact 
 that already Mrs. Myers's dressmaker's bill was 
 some months in arrears. 
 
 To Ursula's supreme satisfaction, when they 
 started for their long walk, she found that John 
 and Nathalie had fallen into step ahead, leaving 
 her to follow with Harry Arterburn. Ursula 
 respected her uncle, and she liked John; but 
 Hany Arterburn she had admitted to her girlish 
 holy of holies, where he occupied a pedestal at 
 the right hand of the one upon which she had 
 placed her father. Suddenly confronted with 
 the question why she admired him so much, she 
 would have been somewhat at a loss to put her 
 reasons into words. He was an earnest, matter- 
 of-fact sort of man, not especially handsome and 
 with the simple manners of a child. Neverthe- 
 less, as she met his steady, clear eyes, as she saw
 
 URSULAS FEESHMAN 179 
 
 the close-shut lips, firm, yet showing in their 
 curves every passing mood of fun or anxiety, re- 
 buke or tenderness, Ursula trusted him with the 
 unerring instinct of healthy-minded girlhood. 
 Moreover, her loyalty kept pace with her admi- 
 ration and her trust. In all her New York life, 
 Harry Arterburn was the one person who was 
 immune from Ursula Thain's teasing. 
 
 " Lessons, to-morrow," he reminded her laugh- 
 ingly, as they turned their faces to the southward. 
 
 " Alas, yes ! I wish somebody would decide 
 that I know enough now for all practical pur- 
 poses," she sighed. 
 
 " It depends upon the purposes. What are you 
 going to do next, after this year is over ? " 
 
 "Live on the memory of it," she answered 
 quaintly. 
 
 " Have you enjoyed it so much ? " 
 
 " Yes, immensely ; then again, not at all." 
 
 " Does that mean, according to whether it is 
 holiday time or not ? " he inquired. 
 
 " It depends upon whether I fight with my 
 aunt, or not," she responded, with unexpected 
 candor. 
 
 Heretofore, it had been only by way of his 
 sister that Harry had become aware of any fric- 
 tion between Mrs. Myers and her niece. Now, 
 all at once, he discovered that it was not of the
 
 180 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 nature of outspoken fifteen to clothe family 
 skeletons with the padding of polite society. 
 Ursula's statement left him mentally gasping for 
 breath and endeavoring to think what he would 
 better say about it all. He could neither ap- 
 prove, nor, if she continued the subject, could he 
 ignore her hostile attitude towards her hostess. 
 And yet, he was a man under thirty, and he had 
 known this tempestuous damsel but two short 
 months. 
 
 He temporized. 
 
 " But I suppose you do dislike to go back to 
 work again," he said guardedly. 
 
 " I don't like the work itself as well as I like 
 the way I do it," she responded graciously. " I 
 have enjoyed these holidays, though. We have 
 had a glorious time, the four of us." 
 
 " And to-night ends it." 
 
 She gave a little sigh. 
 
 "Yes, we go out in a blaze of glory. Aunt 
 Ursula is tickled to pieces over this affair." 
 
 Under cover of the darkness, Harry smiled at 
 the lapse from New York idiom. Then he said 
 gravely,-^ 
 
 " Why should she care ? " 
 
 " Because she has been fishing for this, ever 
 since I came," Ursula answered recklessly. 
 
 Harry recalled Nathalie's suggestion that he
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 181 
 
 should talk to Ursula for her sins, and he felt 
 that his time was come. Unconsciously, how- 
 ever, his heart warmed towards the pretty little 
 sinner who paraded all her vices so unreservedly. 
 Whatever Ursula Thain's other iniquities might 
 be, at least there was nothing underhanded about 
 her walk or her conversation. Such as she was, 
 she invariably showed herself; and she was 
 wonderfully winning and lovable, even in her 
 naughtiness. He hesitated how best to soften 
 his rebuke. 
 
 Ursula read his hesitation. 
 
 " Now there's something you don't like," she 
 said shrewdly. " What is it ? " 
 
 " What makes you think so ? " 
 
 " The way you drew your breath in through 
 your teeth. I've learned it, from the times when 
 I don't know my history lessons," she responded. 
 
 Her companion made a mental note of one 
 more peculiarity which he must abolish. 
 
 " Well, what is the trouble ? " Ursula queried 
 impatiently. 
 
 A good deal to her surprise, he neither 
 laughed, nor denied that there was trouble. In- 
 stead, he said gravely, 
 
 " Ursula, I am quite an old fellow, and perhaps 
 I am getting to be a bit of a fogy in my 
 notions. Shall you be very cross at me, if I give
 
 182 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 you the same kind of a lecture I should give 
 Nathalie?" 
 
 Her step quickened a little; then it slowed 
 down again, and she answered with unwonted 
 gentleness, 
 
 " No. Go on." 
 
 " It is none of my affair really," he said, with 
 an accent of apology in his even voice ; " but, if 
 I were in your place, I don't believe I would 
 care to talk about my aunt quite so frankly 
 to strangers." 
 
 "But you aren't a stranger," she interposed, 
 and he was surprised at the sharp note of pain in 
 her voice. 
 
 " Not to you," he answered ; " but I am to 
 your aunt. It doesn't seem quite fair to be talk- 
 ing her over with me." 
 
 " I thought you'd be interested." Her tone 
 was still a little aggrieved. " You've always 
 acted as if you liked to hear about my things. I 
 am sorry if I've bored you." 
 
 By the glare of a street light, he could see that 
 her figure had stiffened with resentment, that 
 her chin had lifted itself and set with rigid de- 
 fiance. He hastened to explain himself. 
 
 " It's not that I am bored. I like to hear all 
 about Lucretia ; but it's different with your aunt. 
 You don't like her, and "
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 183 
 
 " I like her sometimes ; and then again, some- 
 times she does make me very cross," Ursula 
 corrected him. 
 
 He ignored the interruption. 
 
 " And you are not quite fair to her. Besides, 
 haven't you ever heard that it isn't good man- 
 ners for one woman to run down another, when 
 she is talking to a man ? " 
 
 She relented visibly at his use of the word 
 woman. 
 
 " No ; I never did. I don't see why," she re- 
 plied thoughtfully. 
 
 " Petty convention," he suggested. 
 
 But again she interrupted. 
 
 " Oh, don't you begin that ! Aunt Ursula 
 does nothing but talk about convention this, and 
 convention that, till you would think she was a 
 federated-club Seven Day Baptist. I never heard 
 anything about convention at home. We just 
 tried to be polite and mind our own concerns, 
 and let the rest take care of itself." 
 
 Harry smiled. Then he delivered his care- 
 fully-aimed shot. 
 
 " That is about all that is necessary. But does 
 it strike you that it is quite polite to take favors 
 from your aunt, and then say unpleasant things 
 about her, outside ? " 
 
 The shot told.
 
 184 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 " She needn't be so cranky, then," Ursula said 
 restively. 
 
 " But that is a part of her." 
 
 Ursula turned on him quickly. 
 
 " You think so, too, then ? " she asked. 
 
 He parried her question. 
 
 " I am only judging by what you have told me. 
 Now see here, Ursula, all this is none of my busi- 
 ness. Your aunt hires me to cram Greek and 
 history and things into your head, not to teach 
 you manners. Still, I have gone so far now, I 
 am going to finish up'the matter. At one time 
 or another, you have told me a good deal about 
 yourself, about your old home, and about your 
 new one, too. By your own story, you are hav- 
 ing ever so many things here that you never even 
 heard of, when you were at home ; and it is your 
 aunt who is giving them to you. Now, even if 
 she is critical, even if she does care about some 
 things you and I think aren't worth the count- 
 ing, oughtn't you to put up with it and keep 
 still, or else say once for all that you won't take 
 any more of her favors ? It isn't a thoroughbred 
 dog that gobbles up the bone, and then snaps at 
 the hand that held it out." 
 
 Her silence lasted for so long he feared 
 that she was seriously angry with him. Even 
 then, however, he could not bring himself
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 185 
 
 to regret his plain words, once they were 
 spoken. 
 
 " And, from all I have heard of your father," he 
 added at length ; " I think he would be surprised 
 to find his daughter anything but a thorough- 
 bred." 
 
 " I know that," she said swiftly, yet with no 
 trace of anger in her tone. " He has done all he 
 can to make me so ; and, if I'm not, it isn't his 
 fault. I didn't mean to be so horrid about Aunt 
 Ursula ; but I just didn't think. You see, she 
 fusses at me until I am half wild ; and, before I 
 know it, I've tried to get even with her. "When 
 I get furious at her, I seem to forget that she is 
 giving me things, the whole time, and trying to 
 improve my manners and my morals according 
 to her own pattern. She is very well-meaning, 
 Mr. Arterburn, and she gives me more things 
 than I know what to do with. I never thought 
 how greedy I seemed, to be snatching at all I 
 could get, without any thanks to speak of. I 
 truly will try to be more decent about it, and not 
 fight her, nor say mean things about her, either." 
 
 " Thank you," he answered briefly. 
 
 "For what?" 
 
 " For taking my little lecture without getting 
 angry at it." 
 
 " I shouldn't call it such a very little lecture,"
 
 186 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 she said whimsically. " It was a good large one ; 
 but I think perhaps I deserved it. Besides," her 
 voice grew wishful and altogether winning ; " be- 
 sides, I liked it, after a fashion. Except for my 
 father, nobody ever talked to me like that, be- 
 fore; and now and then one needs a little help." 
 And, turning, she suddenly held out her hand in 
 token of perfect understanding and friendship.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 187 
 
 CHAPTER FOURTEEN 
 
 " TACKIE, my dear boy, do you realize that 
 
 */ my days here are numbered?" Ursula 
 inquired pensively, one evening in early May. 
 
 " Meaning ? " John queried. 
 
 "Fifty-seven and a half. I am to start for 
 Lucretia on the first of July." 
 
 John lowered his book and stared at her. 
 
 " What nonsense are you talking ? " 
 
 " No nonsense at all. I am going." 
 
 " But you aren't. You were asked for a year, 
 and your time isn't up till the first of October. 
 After that, you can do as you please, for I shall be 
 in Yale, and it won't make any especial difference 
 to me whether you are here, or in Lucretia, or in 
 Libonia." 
 
 Ursula laughed. 
 
 " It will to me, though." 
 
 "You don't count in this matter," John re- 
 torted. " Mother hasn't any idea of your going 
 now." 
 
 "But she has, then. She and Uncle Henry 
 were discussing it, last night, when I went into
 
 188 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 the library. She is talking about going home 
 with me, and stopping for a few days." 
 
 " What about me ? " John asked rather wish- 
 fully. 
 
 " You are to go to the farm, and she will meet 
 you there. Isn't it fun that you and Nathalie 
 are to be neighbors, all summer long ? " 
 
 " I didn't know we were." 
 
 " Yes, her small brothers and sisters live with 
 an old cousin in Northford, and she is to spend 
 the summer with them. Mr. Arterburn will be 
 there, part of the time, too. Don't you believe 
 I shall be homesick for you all ? " 
 
 " Come with us, then." 
 
 " Can't. I tell you I am to start for Lucretia 
 on the morning of the first of July." 
 
 " Ursula," John looked at her keenly ; " I don't 
 think you want to go home." 
 
 " I don't know whether I do, or not," she an- 
 swered honestly. "I have been very homesick 
 here; but I shall miss some things, when I go 
 away." 
 
 " What things ? " He looked expectant. 
 
 Ursula smiled sedately. 
 
 "Oh, late breakfasts, and tailor gowns, and 
 the not having to carry the table scraps out to 
 the pig." 
 
 " And me ? " he suggested.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 189 
 
 " Yes, a little." Then the merriment left her 
 face. " Jackie, it would have been a sorry time 
 for me, if you hadn't been in the house." She 
 hesitated a little. " But, Jack, it is very hard to 
 balance it all up. I have had a fine time here ; 
 and you don't know much about the other side, 
 the rough and tumble of a large family in a little 
 house, and the squinting at all sides of a penny, 
 before you dare spend it. It may be healthy ; 
 but it isn't fun. Still, father is there, and mother. 
 If I could only have them, next door, I could be 
 happy here until the end of time." 
 
 " Have you ever seen Uncle Steve?" 
 
 "No." Ursula's tone was rather indifferent, 
 for this younger brother of her father was merely 
 a name to her. 
 
 " You needn't be so sniffy about him, then. 
 He is a good deal like your father, in some ways." 
 
 Ursula shook her head. 
 
 " Jack, nobody is quite like my father. He is 
 he is the only man alive I would take a scold- 
 ing from, and not get furious at him. That 
 is " She halted, as her thoughts flew back- 
 ward to one winter night when Harry Arterburn 
 had rebuked her with a kindly justice which she 
 could not resent. 
 
 " Wait till you see Uncle Steve," John advised 
 her.
 
 190 UKSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 " But I'm not likely to see him. I'm not to be 
 in Northford." 
 
 " Don't be too sure of that. I have an idea 
 that, when it comes to the point, my mother 
 won't let you go. She likes you a good deal bet- 
 ter than she cares to admit, young woman, and 
 she isn't going to enjoy losing us both at the 
 same time." 
 
 " That is why she is sending me off, three 
 months ahead," Ursula suggested. " Then she'll 
 get over pining for me, just in time to begin work 
 on you. However, I am not so sure that she will 
 pine." 
 
 They lapsed into silence, each one busy with 
 his study for the next day, for John was working 
 hard to be ready for his finals in June, and Ursula 
 was doing her best to convince Harry Arterburn 
 that two years' seniority was not always an ad- 
 vantage, where lessons were concerned. From 
 the start, she had determined not to be a drag 
 upon Nathalie, and she had succeeded to the point 
 that Nathalie had never been forced to work 
 harder than during this winter of association with 
 a girl many months younger than herself and a 
 stranger to the discipline gained by good schools 
 and much travel. Even Harry Arterburn, doubt- 
 ful though he might have been at first, was forced 
 to admit that the experiment had been altogether
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 191 
 
 a success, as much for Nathalie as for Ursula. 
 Without Ursula, Nathalie's life would have been 
 thrown too entirely among older people. Her 
 responsibilities and her efficient meeting of them 
 would have been prone to make her lose her girl- 
 ishness. Under these conditions, nothing could 
 have been more healthful for her than her con- 
 stant association with a girl like Ursula, bright, 
 energetic and invariably in the superlative degree 
 of comparison, whatever was the nature of her 
 mood. Ursula roused Nathalie ; Nathalie stead- 
 ied Ursula. They were like the acid and the 
 metals of an electric battery, totally unlike, and 
 each necessary for the full development of a per- 
 fect current. 
 
 Suddenly John looked up again from his book. 
 
 " Ursula, you are a girl and ought to notice 
 things. What is the matter with my father ? " 
 
 " Why ? " she asked, with apparent indifference. 
 
 " He doesn't seem like himself." 
 
 " How do you mean ? " 
 
 " He doesn't say anything, for one thing. He 
 acts, all the time, as if something were worrying 
 him. " 
 
 " He never talks much, }^ou know." 
 
 " But this is different. He seems dull, or wor- 
 ried, or ill. Haven't you noticed it ? " he asked 
 impatiently.
 
 192 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 " Yes, I have," she confessed reluctantly. " He 
 hasn't been right, all this spring." 
 
 " What is it, do you suppose ? " 
 
 " I don't know. I have wondered about it a 
 good deal ; but he isn't the same man he was, 
 when I came. I can't really put my finger on 
 the difference ; but it is there." 
 
 " Is it worry, or not being well ? " 
 
 " I can't tell. It may be a little of both. He 
 says he isn't sleeping, and that is enough to make 
 him look badly. I wouldn't worry about him, 
 Jackie, for it may be nothing, after all." 
 
 " But it is something," he persisted anxiously. 
 " You have noticed it, too, and I have been seeing 
 it, all the spring. It would be awful, if my father 
 should go to pieces." 
 
 Ursula laughed encouragingly. 
 
 " People don't go to pieces, just because they 
 aren't quite well, Jackie." 
 
 " People in Wall Street do." 
 
 "Not always. Most likely he has what my 
 mother used to call ' spring fever.' A bitter tonic 
 and some rest would set him up again. I sup- 
 pose Wall Street people get tired, just the same 
 as Lucretia people do." 
 
 " Not in the same way, though." 
 
 " Perhaps not. Still, there's no use in worry- 
 ing. Your mother isn't at all anxious, Jack."
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 193 
 
 " I wish she would be a little more so," he said 
 restlessly. 
 
 " What's the use ? Men don't like to be fussed 
 at ; and, when she thinks you aren't well, she 
 fusses herself half to death," Ursula said bluntly. 
 " You don't mind it ; but it would drive Uncle 
 Henry wild." 
 
 John flushed. 
 
 " Perhaps I mind it more than I like to tell," 
 he answered. " Sometimes it is easier to put up 
 with things than it is to fight them." 
 
 Turning around in her deep chair, Ursula 
 looked at her cousin with an approving smile. 
 
 " Jack," she observed slowly ; " I am gradually 
 coming to the conclusion that there is more to 
 you than I used to suppose there was." 
 
 " That isn't an overpowering compliment," he 
 retorted. "It's double-ended and heads two 
 ways. Still, I am thankful for so much. But 
 about my father ? " 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 John put his elbows on the table and rested 
 his chin in his cupped palms. 
 
 " Ursula, I can't help thinking that there is 
 something a good deal wrong. My father thinks 
 so, too ; but I don't know what it is. You know 
 my mother has been saying, all winter long, that 
 she wanted to go abroad, this summer. I sup-
 
 194 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 pose that may have been the reason she has 
 planned to have you go home in July, instead of 
 staying out the year. Now. as a general thing, 
 whatever my mother wants, she gets ; but she 
 isn't going to get this. She hinted and then she 
 teased ; but, only a week ago, I heard my father 
 tell her flatly that she couldn't go to Europe, this 
 year. Now what does that mean? " 
 
 Ursula stared thoughtfully into the fire. 
 
 "John, I honestly don't know," she said, at 
 length. "It may mean money; it may mean 
 that he isn't well and wants to have her with 
 him." 
 
 "But she is going to the farm." 
 
 " Yes, and he is going, too." 
 
 " No ; he isn't." 
 
 It was Ursula's turn to stare. 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " He never does. Didn't you know that ? " 
 
 " I never asked. I took it for granted that, if 
 she went, he went, too." 
 
 "He can't leave the office for so long. He 
 runs up for a Sunday, now and then." 
 
 "Then why doesn't Aunt Ursula stay in 
 town ? " Ursula asked sharply. 
 
 " She never could stand it here, all summer 
 long." 
 
 " Why not ? "
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 195 
 
 " It's fearfully hot. You've no idea how these 
 white streets bake and throw back the sun." 
 
 Ursula's mind moved swiftly westward to the 
 thought of the prairies, white-hot under a noon- 
 day sun, of her father and mother walking across 
 them side by side, bound upon some parish 
 errand. 
 
 " But your father stands it." 
 
 " He is used to it. Besides, he has to be here." 
 
 Ursula rose, turned about sharply and stood 
 facing her cousin. 
 
 " What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the 
 gander," she said tersely ; " only this is the other 
 way about." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 " Nothing much, only this : when I get a hus- 
 band of my own, if I ever do get one, I'll stay 
 by him. You won't find me sitting in the shade 
 in the mountains, all summer long, and leaving 
 him at home to fry in his office, while he earns 
 enough money to pay my board bills. It is hor- 
 rid, utterly horrid ; and I never would have 
 thought it of Aunt Ursula." And she stalked 
 away out of the room and put herself to bed, 
 leaving John to digest at his leisure her old- 
 fashioned and unfashionable theories. 
 
 She referred the matter to Nathalie, the next 
 day. Long before this, it had become her cus-
 
 196 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 torn, to lay such debatable points before one or 
 both of the Arterburns, and to accept just so 
 much of their judgment as coincided with her 
 own views. If they disagreed with her, she 
 usually pondered upon their beliefs and rejected 
 them ; but, without her suspecting it in the least, 
 their more guarded judgment tempered her ag- 
 gressive point of view. This rarely affected the 
 case at issue ; but, later on, it rendered her less 
 intolerant. Moreover, like most philosophers, 
 she winnowed her opinions by airing them. 
 
 " Don't hurry home," Nathalie had said, when 
 the lessons were ended. " Mrs. Barrett is com- 
 ing to dinner, to-night, and I must create a pud- 
 ding. Stay and talk to me, while I do it." 
 
 " And make you forget your sugar and mislay 
 your eggs ? " Ursula queried. " My mother al- 
 ways sent us out of the kitchen, when she was 
 doing company cooking." 
 
 " So should I, if there were a dozen of you, all 
 talking at once. I don't mind you, though," 
 Nathalie said, as she tied on a broad apron and 
 armed herself with an egg-beater. 
 
 Ursula dropped into a chair beside the kitchen 
 table. 
 
 " I love to watch you ; your housework always 
 seems like play," she observed thoughtfully. 
 
 Nathalie took her up quickly.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 197 
 
 " So is all work, if you like it and are strong 
 enough." 
 
 " I never used to like housework," Ursula an- 
 swered. "Till I came here, it seemed horrid 
 drudgery ; but now once in a while I wish that I 
 dared go into the kitchen at Aunt Ursula's. Her 
 housekeeping goes of itself, and now and then I 
 believe I should like to see the machinery." 
 
 " Well, watch it now," Nathalie advised her, 
 while she clattered a spoon. " My housekeeping 
 is nearly all machinery ; but I don't mind it, as 
 long as I am chief engineer." 
 
 " Let me help." Ursula possessed herself of a 
 bowl and the egg-beater. " Nathalie," she said 
 abruptly, after an interval of toil ; " what do you 
 think of wives going off to keep cool, and leav- 
 ing their husbands at home to roast ? " 
 
 " Is it a conundrum with a catch in it ? " 
 Nathalie asked. " I never guess those things." 
 
 " No ; there's no conundrum about it ; it is 
 just fact." 
 
 " Then I think they all would better buy some 
 palm-leaf fans, and stick it out together." 
 
 Ursula frowned. 
 
 " I wasn't joking." 
 
 "Neither was I." 
 
 " Then what do you really think ? " 
 
 " Just what I said."
 
 198 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 " Did you suppose nice people did it ? " 
 
 "That depends on what you mean by nice" 
 
 " People like Aunt Ursula, then." 
 
 "She is just the kind. Your mother doesn't 
 do it, and my mother didn't ; but most of the 
 rich women here do." 
 
 " Does Mrs. Barrett ? " 
 
 "No; but she doesn't have rich ways." 
 
 Ursula looked up in surprise. 
 
 " Is she stingy ? " she asked. 
 
 Nathalie laughed until she dropped her spoon. 
 
 " No. When Mrs. Barrett turns stingy, the 
 moon will be green cheese, and the stars little 
 round Edams. She has everything in the world 
 that she wants, and she gives away more than 
 she uses for herself. She makes her own gowns 
 because she likes to do it, and then she gives her 
 dressmaker-money to run a tiny little day nurs- 
 ery. That's the way she does things. But she 
 hasn't any of the showy ways of very rich peo- 
 ple. She and Mr. Barrett trot around together 
 as if they had eighty dollars, not eighty thou- 
 sand." 
 
 " I wish Aunt Ursula did." 
 
 Nathalie raised her yellow brows. 
 
 " Perhaps your uncle doesn't care to have her." 
 
 " He does, then. I know it, because he likes 
 me to meet him, when he comes home at night.
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 199 
 
 Jack and I drop in at the office, once or twice a 
 month, too, and he always is glad to see us. If 
 he isn't too busy, he shows us things, the ticker 
 and all that. Once we tried to get Aunt Ursula 
 to go with us ; but she was too tired." Ursula 
 pounded away at her eggs vigorously for another 
 minute or two. Then she laughed. "We had 
 such fun, one day. Aunt Ursula was going to a 
 luncheon and, in the hall, that morning, Uncle 
 Henry told Jack to bring me down to the office 
 at one. We went down, and he took us out to 
 lunch at the queerest French restaurant away 
 down town. You never would have known 
 Uncle Henry, that noon. He was just like a 
 boy. It was one of the best times I have had 
 since I came to New York." 
 
 Nathalie's face clouded a little. Only that 
 morning, she and Harry had sat long over their 
 simple breakfast, discussing certain new rumors 
 which had come to Harry's ears concerning the 
 affairs of Myers and Heath. The spring had 
 been a season of unsteadiness in the Wall Street 
 world, and already one or two failures had re- 
 sulted. Until lately, Mr. Myers had had the 
 reputation of being a conservative business man ; 
 yet his scale of domestic living had increased 
 with scant regard for possible bad times. Care- 
 ful observers were already taking into account
 
 200 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 the recent sprinkling of gray in his dark brown 
 hair, the tight shutting of his jaw and the two 
 perpendicular lines between his eyebrows. It 
 affected their judgment not one whit that Mrs. 
 Myers was manifestly as care-free as ever. 
 
 Nathalie started to speak ; then she hesitated. 
 She knew that she had no right to criticize 
 Ursula's aunt, least of all to Ursula's aunt's crit- 
 ical niece. 
 
 "What do you honestly think about it?" 
 Ursula demanded again. 
 
 Nathalie added the finishing touches to her 
 pudding, and slid the pudding into the oven. 
 Then she turned around. 
 
 "I truthfully don't know what to say, nor 
 how to say it, Ursula. I'm not married, and I'm 
 not a very rich woman with a great many en- 
 gagements to keep. They say society women 
 work a good deal harder than business men. I'm 
 not either one, so I can't judge. But then, 
 neither are you. Perhaps that is just where your 
 chance lies. If your uncle is lonely and your 
 aunt is busy, why can't you and Jack make 
 things jolly for him, and so help along both sides 
 of it?" 
 
 " Yes ; but what about the leaving him alone, 
 this summer ? " 
 
 " I'm not a society woman, and I can't tell
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 201 
 
 what they ought to do. I generally mean to 
 stick to Hal." 
 
 " And next year, when I'm gone, and Jack is 
 in Yale ? " Ursula persisted. 
 
 Nathalie opened the oven door, and peered in 
 at her pudding. 
 
 " ' Sufficient unto the day,' ' she quoted 
 gravely. " You have almost two months, before 
 you go home. If I were in your place, I would 
 see what I could do in that time, and let next 
 fall take care of itself." 
 
 But not even Nathalie could foresee the way in 
 which the coming autumn would adjust the 
 course of events to suit its own convenience.
 
 202 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 CHAPTER FIFTEEN 
 
 A WHISTLE, asthmatic, raucous, long-drawn, 
 -Z~V broke in upon the slumbers of Mrs. Myers. 
 Drowsily she opened her eyes and looked about 
 her with the vague wonder that always accom- 
 panies an awakening in strange surroundings. 
 Little by little her glance gathered focus and 
 took a sharp survey of her quarters. Then she 
 shuddered, buried her face in the whitey-gray 
 shadow of the sheet and lay still. By degrees, 
 however, curiosity reasserted itself, and she 
 pulled down the sheet to look about her again. 
 
 The room was small, and the broken-backed 
 ceiling slanted down at such an angle as to im- 
 peril the brains of any one who sat up abruptly 
 at the back side of the bed. The bedstead itself 
 was of some nameless species of brown wood, 
 and it consisted of an infinite number of rods 
 and bars differing in size, but all fluted with the 
 same exasperating regularity which adorns a 
 home-made wedding cake. The rest of the fur- 
 niture was painted in pale greenish blue, sten- 
 ciled with bunches of deep pink roses. Red
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 203 
 
 ribbons tied back the muslin curtains, and the 
 wall was covered with a brownish trellis support- 
 ing a browner vine which bore, by some botan- 
 ical freak, the leaves and blossoms of a gigantic 
 breed of English violets. The bureau was lit- 
 tered with silver-backed brushes and silver-topped 
 bottles, and a heap of lace-trimmed ruffles lay 
 across a chair by the bedside. 
 
 Mrs. Myers's glance roamed hither and thither. 
 Then she yawned wearily, looked at her watch 
 and prodded the pillow in the vain hope of sub- 
 duing a few of its more aggressive promontories. 
 The whistle ceased, apparently for want of 
 breath, for it died away with a whispered gur- 
 gle ; but it was useless for Mrs. Myers to try to 
 go to sleep again. The rooms on two sides of 
 her were already humming with childish voices, 
 and, from below, the clatter of plates and the 
 beat of the chopping-knife within kept disjointed 
 time with the beat of the hatchet in the wood- 
 shed outside. With one last, protesting yawn, 
 Mrs. Myers slid out of bed and went to the 
 windows to look out. 
 
 It had been too dark, when Mrs. Myers had 
 reached Lucretia, the night before, for her to dis- 
 cover that the story-and-a-half parsonage stood 
 close to the narrow street and next to the church 
 which, painted the same uncompromising shade
 
 204 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 of yellow as the house, was constructed on the 
 architectural lines of an oil can mounted on the 
 end of a shoe-box. There was no especial reason 
 that the road should have been so narrow. Op- 
 posite the church was the one store which 
 Lucretia supported ; otherwise there was noth- 
 ing beyond the farther sidewalk but a stretch of 
 open prairie which apparently extended, an un- 
 inhabited plain, to the uttermost confines of the 
 next county but one. 
 
 Mrs. Myers stared out across the dusty, de- 
 serted street, over the treeless prairie, already 
 scorching under the fierce July sun, then down 
 into the little front yard where innumerable 
 Thains of assorted sizes were playing some 
 modern variant of the old-time hopscotch. As 
 she watched the leisurely progress of the game, 
 the smile on her lips tempered the disgust in her 
 eyes. That chubby, dark-eyed youngster in the 
 baggy trousers was wonderfully like his father at 
 the same age ; and the sister a size larger than 
 himself reminded her of her own girlhood at the 
 pinafore and pigtail stage of existence. Then 
 she shivered again, as she tried to fancy the hor- 
 ror of living in such a wilderness. 
 
 Mrs. Thain was putting the breakfast on the 
 table, as her sister-in-law entered the room, half 
 an hour later. Mrs. Thain was dressed in a gray
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 205 
 
 calico wrapper, spotless, but of the epoch which 
 wore crinoline in the tops of its sleeves. Mrs. 
 Myers had put on a crisp white lawn which had 
 gone straight from her dressmaker to her trunk. 
 The clothes were no more unlike, however, than 
 were the women who wore them. 
 
 " I hope you slept well," Mrs. Thain said hos- 
 pitably. 
 
 Mrs. Myers thought of the pillow, and com- 
 mended her soul to the mercy of the recording 
 angel. 
 
 " Very," she answered politely. 
 
 " I am glad of that. I was afraid the children 
 would disturb you. They Avere up early, for 
 they couldn't wait to see Ursula. They have 
 missed her more than I thought they would." 
 
 "I don't wonder," Mrs. Myers said heartily. 
 
 Mrs. Thain unbent. 
 
 " Ursula is a good girl," she responded. " She 
 has always been a comfort to us, and her letters 
 have done us good, all the year. She has been 
 happy with you." 
 
 Mrs. Myers laid her white, beringed hand on 
 top of the hard red fingers that held the coffee-pot. 
 
 "I am glad to hear you say so. She has 
 brightened our home, and been a good compan- 
 ion for John. Next year, I shall miss her as 
 much as you have done, this year."
 
 206 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 Gently, but steadily Mrs. Thain withdrew her 
 hand. 
 
 " I guess not. You aren't her own mother." 
 
 "I feel almost as if I were." 
 
 "But it isn't the real thing. It's one's own 
 child that counts for the most. Ursula is a good 
 girl, even if she is quick-tempered." 
 
 "I hope you will find her improved," Mrs. 
 Myers said, with a little dignity. 
 
 " It's too soon to tell. She is prettier, and she 
 wears better clothes ; but she looks to me just 
 about the same Ursula that went away. Still, I 
 don't believe you have hurt her any, and, at her 
 age, that's about the same thing as saying you've 
 helped her. Girls don't stand still, as a rule. 
 It's up or down with them, and it isn't always 
 easy to be sure it's up." 
 
 It must be confessed that Mrs. Thain had 
 awaited with no little anxiety the coming of her 
 daughter. Ursula's letters had suggested no 
 change in the girl's love for her home. Never- 
 theless, Mrs. Thain was well aware that there 
 was some risk in the experiment of moving a 
 young girl into luxurious surroundings for a 
 year, and then bringing her back to take up her 
 simpler life anew. After the glare and glamour 
 of the Myers home, it was an open question 
 whether or not the Lucretia household would
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 207 
 
 seem undesirably mean and shabby in compari- 
 son. Mrs. Thain, as she paced the platform of 
 the station at her husband's side, felt her heart 
 beat with a painful swiftness, Avhile she waited 
 for the train to whistle at the crossing, two miles 
 down the road. 
 
 She was still too intent upon scanning the 
 windows of the day coaches, to pay any heed to 
 the sleepers at the rear of the train, and she 
 missed the silver-born servility of the porter who 
 was helping two women to step down from the 
 car. The next minute, she heard the well-re- 
 membered voice, 
 
 " Oh, father ! Father dear ! " And the voice 
 broke into a sob of sheer happiness, as Mr. 
 Thain's arms met around his daughter, quite re- 
 gardless of the probable price of the simple 
 panama hat which, between them, they were 
 crushing so recklessly. 
 
 Then, as Mrs. Thain submitted to the same 
 tempestuous embrace, she dismissed at least a 
 fraction of her anxiety. The one winter had not 
 sufficed to alienate Ursula entirely from her old 
 home. However, while she was getting break- 
 fast, the next morning, Mrs. Thain's doubts came 
 back upon her ; but they were promptly removed 
 again. Ten minutes after her mother had en- 
 tered the kitchen, Ursula, fresh and dainty in a
 
 208 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 pink cotton gown, came running down the 
 stairs. 
 
 " Oh, it does seem so good to be at home," she 
 said blithely. " Now what shall I do first ? " 
 
 Her mother smiled grimly. 
 
 "Well, I never supposed you'd be down so 
 early, the first morning you were at home," she 
 said, by way of salutation. 
 
 " The very time I don't want to lie abed. I'm 
 going to help you get breakfast. There now, 
 look glad to see me, for I know you are so glad 
 you want to stand on your head in a corner." 
 She caught her mother by the chin and looked 
 straight into her eyes. "Aren't you glad, 
 mother ? " she added gravely. 
 
 And Mrs. Thain made answer just as gravely, 
 
 " The Lord knows I am, Ursula." 
 
 For the next week, Mrs. Thain watched her 
 daughter with anxiety, Mr. Thain with open 
 idolatry. Then, one night, they sat and talked 
 her over together, and they both agreed that 
 Ursula had come back to them, quite unspoiled. 
 Moreover, they resolved that no power on earth 
 should make them give her up again, a resolution 
 which was no sooner made than it was broken. 
 
 It had been agreed that Mrs. Myers was to 
 stay with them for ten days ; and for ten days, 
 accordingly, the Thain family feasted and held
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 209 
 
 holiday. The guest, when she chose, could show 
 infinite tact in adjusting herself to new surround- 
 ings, and just now she did choose. Not even 
 Mrs. Barrett could have criticized the easy, off- 
 hand way in which she entered into the simple 
 life of the parsonage, petting and playing with 
 the children and talking with Mrs. Thain of all 
 manner of household economies, the very names 
 of whose details came back to her but slowly 
 from out the long-forgotten past. In a sense, 
 she enjoyed it all, as one enjoys exploring a new 
 country. Nevertheless, it palled upon her in 
 time, and she thought longingly of New York 
 and of Blowmedowne Farm where her son was 
 awaiting her. 
 
 But although the thrifty wife and the healthy, 
 roistering children now and then ceased to in- 
 terest her, never for one moment was she bored 
 or unhappy in the society of her brother. For 
 the time being, they both had forgotten the 
 years and the circumstances which had caused 
 them to drift apart, and they had dropped back 
 into the old, old intimacy of their younger days. 
 Dismissing all thought of criticism, each had 
 looked only for good in the other, and each had 
 found only what he sought. Yet, in spite of his 
 narrower life and opportunity, the brother was 
 the dominating spirit ; and, in his presence, his
 
 210 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 sister lost much of her worldliness, and did her 
 best to conform to his higher ideal of all that a 
 woman could become. 
 
 On the last morning of her visit, she knocked 
 at his study door. 
 
 " Come," he bade her. 
 
 She sat down beside him at the table, an open 
 letter in her hand. 
 
 "Are you too busy to talk, Irving?" she 
 asked. 
 
 Still leaning on his elbow, he turned to face 
 her. 
 
 " It is almost our last chance, Ursula," he said, 
 with a smile. " I couldn't be too busy to make 
 the most of it." 
 
 As she met his eyes, she forgot her errand. 
 
 " Irving, it has been very good for me to have 
 been here." 
 
 " I am glad. We all have enjoyed it." 
 
 " So have I. But I meant something more 
 than just the enjoyment of it. It has taken me 
 backwards to the old days at home. It has made 
 me feel younger, more human." 
 
 " Did you need that ? " he asked, smiling again. 
 
 She answered him unsmilingly. 
 
 " Yes, more than you know. Perhaps you do 
 know, though. You must have felt it, when you 
 were in New York, that I wasn't the same
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 211 
 
 Ursula. Irving, I love my life ; I love its coin- 
 forts and its ways. It keeps ine busy and con- 
 tented and interested ; but it does make me a lit- 
 tle hard. Once in a while, it seems to me that I 
 am only a cog in a great social machine, that I 
 am losing something for the sake of being a cog, 
 and that, after all, the machine would go on just 
 as well without mo. And yet, I can't seem to 
 make up my mind to get out of it and let it go 
 on without me." She frowned intently at the 
 row of little pleats she was laying in the dingy 
 table cover. 
 
 " I think I understand how it might be," her 
 brother said slowly. " Still, you have your hus- 
 band and John." 
 
 " Yes, in a way. But Henry is another cog, 
 only his machine is financial, not social. We turn 
 around side by side ; there's no friction, because 
 we never really touch each other. I admire him 
 and love him ; but I can't get at him, as I used 
 to do. Sometimes I am half afraid I bore him ; 
 and yet he loves me as he loves his own life, and 
 he knows I love him. Irving, I actually didn't 
 realize how apart we have grown, until I came 
 here and found you and Alice grinding along to- 
 gether and sharing everything from your income 
 to your worries. I love my home just as it is ; 
 but I truly believe I would be willing to live in a
 
 212 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 three-room tenement, if Henry would let me lay 
 out his clean cuffs for him and read him my gro- 
 cery accounts. We care for each other as we al- 
 ways did ; but the romance is nearly all gone out 
 of us." 
 
 " Whose fault is it, Ursula ? " 
 
 She looked up sharply. 
 
 "Nobody's. At least, neither of us. It is 
 the fault of modern life, when servants and 
 electricity take the place of all the good old 
 home ways." 
 
 He bent forward and laid his hand on hers. 
 
 " My dear old girl, I live in the wilderness ; 
 but I think I understand. But there is John." 
 
 Her face changed. 
 
 " Yes, there's John. For years, he has been 
 the one softening spot in my life. I have held 
 on to him and made a baby of him, until I almost 
 succeeded in spoiling him entirely. I knew that 
 he was growing priggy ; but I could not bear to 
 give him up and let him grow away from me, for 
 fear that spot would harden, too, and shut me up 
 in myself all over. Ursula helped me there. She 
 was so healthy and energetic that she undid some 
 of the harm I was doing ; and John is turning 
 into a normal boy without losing any of his finer 
 side. He grows more manly ; but he is just as 
 loving as ever."
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 213 
 
 " But, as Ursula says, the Pettijohn is turning 
 into Pettijack," he suggested. 
 
 " Yes. I wish you could see him now. I think 
 you would like him." 
 
 " I liked him before," her brother interrupted. 
 " He was a quiet fellow ; but now and then he 
 showed there was more to him than appeared 
 on the surface." 
 
 " I am glad you saw it." Then her face grew 
 sad. " But, Irving, I am worried about Henry." 
 
 " What about him ? " 
 
 " He isn't well, and he is worrying about some- 
 thing, his business probably. I wish I dared 
 talk to him about it." 
 
 "Why don't you?" 
 
 She sighed wearily. 
 
 " It is too long since I have done such a thing 
 for me to begin again now." 
 
 " Try it," he advised her. 
 
 "I am afraid of saying the wrong thing, of 
 making him think I am meddling, or that I dis- 
 trust him. Until I came out here, it never oc- 
 curred to me, even, that I could speak to him 
 about it. Since I came, I have tried to think how 
 to say it ; but it is of no use." 
 
 Mr. Thain raised his eyes until they rested 
 straight on the eyes of his sister. 
 
 " I think it is always of use," he said quietly.
 
 214 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 " That's what the marriage service meant, when 
 you assented to it." 
 
 She bit her lip for a moment. "When it was 
 quite steady again, she answered him. 
 
 "I will try, Irving. Perhaps the fault has 
 been partly of my own making." 
 
 The silence between them lasted for a long 
 time ; but it was a silence which went far to seal 
 their renewed intimacy. At length, Mrs. Myers 
 brushed her fingers across her eyes and turned to 
 the letter. 
 
 " You have helped me in words, Irving," she 
 said. " Now will you help me in deeds ? " 
 
 " Of course," he answered heartily. 
 
 " Don't pledge yourself too soon," she warned 
 him ; " for I am going to ask for one of your 
 dearest possessions." 
 
 His face fell, for he suspected her mean- 
 ing. 
 
 " What is it ? " he asked uneasily. 
 
 "May I take Ursula back with me for just one 
 more year ? " 
 
 " Oh, don't ask me ! " he burst out. 
 
 "I know I am selfish, Irving; but we want 
 her so much. I felt as if I couldn't give her up. 
 John will go into Yale in the fall, and our home 
 will be so lonely, with no young life in it. To- 
 day, I have a letter from Henry, begging me to
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 215 
 
 bring the child back with me. Kead it, and see 
 for yourself." 
 
 Mr. Thain read the letter slowly, read be- 
 tween the lines the insistent note of the busy 
 man, hungry for affection, who had come to 
 depend upon the demonstrative love of his 
 tempestuous young niece. It took a scant five 
 minutes to read ; but the time was long enough 
 for Mr. Thain to fight a winning battle against 
 himself. Then he gave back the letter. 
 
 " If her mother is willing," he said slowly ; 
 " I am ready to give my consent." 
 
 But there was an unwonted flush about his 
 thin temples and, after Mrs. Myers had left 
 the room, he paced the floor for a long half -hour.
 
 216 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 CHAPTER SIXTEEN 
 
 " ' Jolly good song ! 
 Jotty well sung .' ' 
 
 GO it again, Fizzums." 
 But Fizzums protested. 
 
 " Mr. Wex Barrett, you mustn't jounce me up 
 and down so hard. It shakes my feet all up 
 into my mouf, and makes me uncomfytable." 
 
 " Then sing it again," Kingsley urged. 
 
 " I sha'n't not," Fizzums answered, in uncon- 
 scious imitation of the vernacular of Mr. Henry 
 James. " It is only a Sunday song, and it isn't 
 Sunday now." 
 
 " Then what made you sing it? " 
 
 "To see if I could merember it. Cousin 
 Vedowa told me not to forget it." 
 
 " The way you forgot me ? " Kingsley sug- 
 gested unkindly, for, on his arrival, the day 
 before, he had been chagrined to have Fizzums 
 receive him as a total stranger. 
 
 But Fizzums took it upon himself to explain. 
 
 " I didn't even merember Nathalie, and she's 
 my sister, so how could I merember you ? It
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 217 
 
 was two years ago, and you were all speckly on 
 your cheeks then. I merembered the speckles, 
 and so I forgot 'twas you, when you didn't have 
 'em any more." 
 
 "Oh, thanks awfully. You mean I have 
 grown so good-looking you didn't recognize me. 
 "Well, where are you going with that basket 
 of apples ? " 
 
 " Down to Mrs. Myers's house." 
 
 " Does Mrs. Myers like apples ? " 
 
 " No ; but her cow does," Fizzums answered 
 unexpectedly. 
 
 " And she asked you to bring her some ? " 
 
 " Cows can't talk any." 
 
 Kingsley looked abashed at the slur upon his 
 rhetoric. 
 
 " I meant Mrs. Myers." 
 
 " And I meant the cow," Fizzums replied, 
 with infinite dignity. 
 
 " I see. And so you feed her ? " 
 
 "Yes. She's all tied up in the barn, and 
 she gets lonesome for the other cows, so I fought 
 I would take her a basket of apples." 
 
 Kingsley glanced down at the knotty, gnarly 
 windfalls. 
 
 " "Well, look out you don't make her sick." 
 
 "I couldn't. She's sick now," Fizzums re- 
 sponded.
 
 218 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 " Then I'd advise you to let her alone." 
 
 Fizzums put down the heavy basket and stood 
 rubbing his chubby arms, while he proceeded to 
 argue the question. 
 
 "If you was a cow, Mr. Wex Barrett, and 
 couldn't go outdoors 'cause you weren't well and 
 mustn't get your feet wet, wouldn't you be glad 
 if somebody bwought you some nice fresh apple- 
 sauce in a bowl with a napkin over it ? Well, 
 vat's what I'm doing." 
 
 Kingsley shook his head in despair of compre- 
 hending the situation. 
 
 " You don't look it. But come ahead, young- 
 ster." 
 
 "I ain't youngster, and where to?" Fizzums 
 inquired elliptically. 
 
 " To ask Mrs. Myers if you can feed her cow 
 some hot apple dumplings." 
 
 Fizzums pursed up his lips thoughtfully. 
 
 " Are you going, too ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 "What for?" 
 
 " To see the people." 
 
 " Do you know Mrs. Myers ? " 
 
 " Of course I do. Are you coming ? " 
 
 " Yes." Fizzums spoke with sudden anima- 
 tion. "You can carry the basket, then, Mr. 
 Wex Barrett ; only you must give it to me, just
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 219 
 
 as soon as we get in sight of the house." And, 
 leaving Kingsley to follow with his burden, 
 he led the way as fast as his stout little legs 
 would carry him. 
 
 Turning at a sharp angle from the smooth 
 country road, they entered a long lane where the 
 ruts were buried deep in grass and where the 
 trees, birch and beech and butternut, interlaced 
 their branches overhead, leaving the sunlight to 
 sift through them in flickering patches which 
 only served to enhance the green coolness be- 
 neath. Squirrels, red and gray, skittered through 
 the branches and mocked defiance at the wood- 
 peckers, and, from a distant patch of ferns, there 
 rose the dull drumming of a startled partridge. 
 
 At a bend of the lane where the trees opened 
 out for a little grassy lawn, they met Ursula 
 coming towards them, and Kingsley set down 
 his basket in order to give her both his hands. 
 
 "By Jove, you look like a veritable wood- 
 nymph," he said admiringly, as his eyes mounted 
 from her pale green gown to her shining braids 
 of brown hair. 
 
 " I feel like one here. Isn't it pretty ? But I 
 was just coming to see if you were really here." 
 
 " I really am. What's more, you'll have to 
 put up with me for three weeks, unless Sister 
 Eudora Evelina fires me out," he responded.
 
 220 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 " Cousin Vedowa is af waid of fire," Fizzums 
 observed in an aggrieved aside which no one 
 heeded. " She tooked all the matches out of my 
 pockets, and then she spanked me awful." 
 
 Ursula had fallen into step at Kingsley's side. 
 
 " I can stand it, if you can," she answered. 
 " But where is Nathalie ? " 
 
 " Writing some letters for Hal. He is all tired 
 out, and she is playing secretary for him. She 
 sent me over to hunt you up, and she said she 
 would be along in time to take me home to 
 lunch. How is Pettijack ? " 
 
 Ursula laughed. 
 
 " Use that name to his face, if you dare." 
 
 " I did, when I wrote to him about the room, 
 and, when he answered, he signed himself the 
 same way. That's where you lose, Miss Lu- 
 cretia." 
 
 She made a wry face at the name. 
 
 " Then I'll keep on playing till I win, Mr. Eli. 
 But I neglected to answer your question. Jack 
 is reposing on the knoll, while the dog digs out a 
 woodchuck." 
 
 " That's Nicodemus," Fizzums explained sud- 
 denly, for he began to feel himself ignored and 
 left out of the conversation. 
 
 " Nicodemus ? I thought he was dead." 
 
 " He was very much alive, half an hour ago,
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 221 
 
 when I found him trying to bury one of the kit- 
 tens in the pansy bed." 
 
 " But how did he come here ? " 
 
 Again Fizzums sought to explain. 
 
 " Cousin Yedowa tooked him to scare away 
 bugaboos ; but, one day, he ated up Cousin 
 Vedowa's best Sunday hat. It was all over 
 fevvers, and it made him sick ; but it made her 
 cwoss. It's worse to be cwoss than to be sick. 
 One hurts your body, and the other hurts your 
 soul. Cousin Vedowa's soul must have ached 
 awful. She didn't love Nicodemus any more, 
 and so she gave him to Uncle Steve to dig wood- 
 chucks with." 
 
 Leaving Fizzums and his basket in charge of 
 one of the men at the barn, Kingsley stopped at 
 the house long enough to shake hands with Mrs. 
 Myers. Then he departed with Ursula in search 
 of the knoll and John. They found the knoll ; 
 but the boy had disappeared. 
 
 " What's your hurry ? " Kingsley asked, as 
 Ursula turned to retrace her steps. " Give a 
 fellow time to look at the view, now he's here." 
 
 Obediently she dropped down on the short, 
 crisp turf at his feet. 
 
 " I thought you wanted to find Jack." 
 
 " Much better to let Jack find us," he re- 
 turned, as he settled his long length beside her.
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 " It is twice as much work, no, four times as 
 much for us to find him as for him to find us." 
 
 " How do you make that out ? " she asked, 
 laughing. 
 
 " It's twice as much work for two to do a 
 thing as for one to do it ; and it is twice as much 
 work to hunt for an object half the size of an- 
 other. Twice two are four," he answered com- 
 posedly. Then he rolled over and rested on his 
 elbow. " Jove, this is pretty ! " he said, half to 
 himself. 
 
 Kingsley spoke truthfully, for the knoll was 
 the real glory of all Blowmedowne Farm. It 
 was merely a sharp little hillock springing from 
 the midst of an open pasture, dotted here and 
 there with silver-green mulleins like huge velvet 
 rosettes set against the short green turf. Be- 
 hind it, the mountain rose sharply, its wall of 
 solid trees broken only by the house and its 
 broad lawn ; but before it there opened out a 
 long strip of valley where the blue Connecticut 
 wound away and away between the notches of 
 the hills, down to the distant sea. And always, 
 at the southern end of the picture, the blue lines 
 of Ascutney showed themselves, the crowning 
 beauty of the whole. 
 
 Suddenly Kingsley sat up and faced Ursula 
 again.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 223 
 
 " Mighty good idea your coming back east ! " 
 
 " I'm glad you think so." 
 
 " Of course. Don't you ? " 
 
 She picked a mullein leaf and slowly tore the 
 velvety surface across and across. 
 
 " Naturally, or I shouldn't have come." 
 
 " It will make a lot of difference to Nathalie 
 and Mr. Arterburn, to say nothing of all the rest 
 of us," he went on. 
 
 There was the least possible hesitation in the 
 busy hands. 
 
 " Nathalie, yes. But I don't suppose Mr. Ar- 
 terburn cares much, one way or the other." 
 
 "Not even to keep a pupil?" he inquired 
 jestingly. 
 
 Her cheeks flushed angrily. 
 
 " That shows you don't know Mr. Arterburn." 
 
 " I was only joking." 
 
 "There are some subjects that are beyond a 
 joke," she said shortly. "Mr. Arterburn is a 
 gentleman, and, what's more, he isn't greedy." 
 
 " That's where you tell the truth," he assented. 
 "Nobody likes Harry Arterburn better than I 
 do. I have reason to. I wish he were a stronger 
 fellow, though. Some day, he will go to pieces." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " Ursula asked sharply. 
 
 "What I say. He works hard enough for 
 three or four men, and it is all head work, too.
 
 224 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 Mac Holden told him, two years ago, that he 
 must go slow ; but he is at it faster than ever. 
 I haven't seen him since Easter till last night, 
 and I should hardly have known him." 
 
 "It's those children," Ursula said, as, with a 
 vicious sweep of her hand, she flirted the scraps 
 of mullein from her lap. 
 
 " It's the need for money, more," Kingsley an- 
 swered gloomily. " Money is an awful bore, 
 anyhow. If you don't have it, you need it. If 
 you do, you worry for fear you may lose it all." 
 
 Ursula ruthlessly interrupted his philosophizing. 
 
 "It is those children," she asserted again. 
 " They are enough to try the patience of a saint, 
 even of a saint like Harry Arterburn. Fizzums 
 is bad enough. He spends every other day in 
 solitary confinement for some prank he has 
 played, the day before ; but even he isn't a cir- 
 cumstance to Kalph and Peggy. As nearly as I 
 can discover, they have spent the whole year in 
 squabbling, and have saved up all their telltale 
 complaints to pour into Mr. Arterburn's ears. 
 They want this, and they must do that, and they 
 fret about the other thing, until he is half worn 
 out." 
 
 Impatiently Kingsley sent a stone crashing 
 down the hillside to frighten the cows grazing 
 below.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 225 
 
 " Ralph isn't a bad fellow," he said ; " but I 
 detest Peggy. What is more, she returns the 
 compliment with energy." 
 
 " You'd better thank Providence for so much. 
 At least, that keeps her from being under your 
 feet, the whole time," Ursula responded. " Jack 
 hates her, too. He told her, the other day, that 
 he would set Nicodenms on her, if she didn't go 
 home and stay there." 
 
 " Pettijack has good sense. She is a most un- 
 desirable young person." Then he put his hands 
 to his mouth. " Oh, Nathalie ! " he shouted, as 
 he caught sight of two bare yellow heads coming 
 towards them. 
 
 It was John who answered. 
 
 " Well, you are a great fellow," he said, as he 
 dropped down beside Kingsley. 
 
 " There appears to be a pair of us. But what's 
 the matter now ? " 
 
 " Nathalie said you had come down to see me." 
 
 " Well, here I am." 
 
 " Maybe ; but you don't appear to have had 
 any overpowering desire to find me." 
 
 " Don't let your temper get frazzley at the 
 ends, Pettijack," Kingsley advised him tran- 
 quilly. "We found your trail here, and, not 
 seeing you, we naturally inferred that you and 
 Nicodemus had gone inside the hole to have a
 
 226 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 game of romps with the woodchuck. Hullo, 
 Nicodemus, you brute ! Come along and shake 
 hands with an old-time friend." 
 
 But Nicodemus sulkily withdrew himself to 
 the pile of fresh earth beside the woodchuck 
 hole, and prepared to renew his excavations. 
 
 "Has anybody seen Fizzums?" Nathalie in- 
 quired anxiously. 
 
 "Yes, he was sitting on the pigpen fence, 
 armed with an old umbrella and a basket of sour 
 apples. The last I saw of him, he was preparing 
 to make things merry for the pigs," John reas- 
 sured her. " How is Yale, Rex ? " 
 
 " Blooming, and bluer than indigo." 
 
 " Anybody dead ? " 
 
 " No ; with loyalty, not grief. Likewise, after 
 the fashion of Fizzums with the pigs, it is pre- 
 paring to make things merry for the freshmen, 
 next fall." 
 
 " You were a freshman once, yourself," Nath- 
 alie reminded him. 
 
 " "Was I ? It is so long since that I can't seem 
 to remember. Besides, in my very first week, 
 didn't Ursula lustily and aloud proclaim that I 
 looked like a senior ? Ursula, my admiration for 
 you dates from that hour. I always recognize 
 a girl of discreet understanding, when I see 
 one."
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 227 
 
 " I should know better, another time," she an- 
 swered him. "By the time you are a senior, 
 you probably will be fresher than you are now. 
 You aren't a fair test, either. You had some 
 older brothers to teach you the traditions of the 
 place." 
 
 " And, by Jove, that's an advantage, too," he 
 said, with sudden seriousness. " Some of the 
 freshmen do make awful cads of themselves. 
 They come from away, and they don't know 
 anything about college, and they think it is 
 funny to live in a perpetual row. They aren't 
 the best fellows, by any means, and there aren't 
 many of them ; but they manage to keep them- 
 selves before the public till the whole class gets 
 credit for their foolery. Every year, there's a set 
 of fellows that appear to think they are the first 
 and only freshmen who ever entered Yale." 
 
 "Take warning, Jack," Ursula admonished 
 him. "Hear the words of the sophomore, and 
 consider yourself wise." 
 
 But Kingsley shook his head. 
 
 " Anyhow, even if you do laugh, wisdom lies 
 that way. I had a senior brother, and he gave 
 me some mighty good points that I propose to 
 pass on to Pettijack. There's fun enough going, 
 all over the campus, without a fellow's constantly 
 running up against the police, because he is hunt-
 
 228 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 ing for more. A cad is a cad, inside a univer- 
 sity or out." 
 
 Nathalie nodded energetic approval. 
 
 " You're all right, Kex. I've heard Harry say 
 the same thing. I'll say Amen to your sermon, 
 no matter how often you preach it." 
 
 " I don't want to preach," he returned, a little 
 abashed by her word ; " but there's no Bae- 
 decker's Guide to Yale, and lots of fellows, every 
 year, run aground for lack of a little friendly 
 steering from one of the older men. Moreover, 
 once they are down, they aren't condemned one 
 bit harder by the faculty than they are by the 
 best men of their own class. That's all ; but I 
 have been there and seen." 
 
 Ursula brushed away the sand from the flying 
 paws of Nicodemus, and smoothed down her gown. 
 
 "You've right on your side, Kex," she said 
 then. " I think I am willing to trust Jackie to 
 your fostering care. You probably will haze 
 him; but you will pour good advice into his 
 ears, between whiles. And now, if you have 
 finished your sermon, suppose we consider how 
 we can amuse ourselves for the next three 
 weeks." 
 
 "But I want a share in that discussion." 
 
 Ursula turned around eagerly at sound of the 
 new voice.
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 229 
 
 " Uncle Steve ! I was wishing you would 
 come. Have you met Mr. Barrett ? " 
 
 Kingsley turned a little indifferently. The 
 next instant, he was on his feet, hat in hand. He 
 had heard of Mr. Stephen Thain as a country 
 farmer who managed Blowmedowne for his 
 sister and occupied a part of the house during 
 her absence; he met Mr. Stephen Thain as he 
 would have met one of his father's New York 
 friends. A later acquaintance proved that his 
 first instinct had been a correct one, for, under- 
 neath the blue overalls, there was a finished 
 gentleman. Mr. Thain's hands were slim and 
 nervous, his gray eyes steady, his accent free 
 from any twang. 
 
 Deliberately he pushed JSTicodemus aside and 
 seated himself on the mound of earth, facing the 
 group. 
 
 " This is a great chance for me," he said, with 
 a twinkle in his eyes that harmonized with the 
 ring of his voice. " I don't often have a chance 
 to explore the country with four new people, 
 and I mean to make the most of it. How soon 
 can you be ready to start ? " 
 
 Ursula rose. 
 
 "Soon enough to get home in time to start 
 again," she answered definitely.
 
 230 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 
 
 IT was only the next morning that Harry 
 Arterburn came tramping down the lane at 
 a great pace. Ursula, on the broad veranda, 
 saw him from afar, and waved her hand in wel- 
 come. He ignored the greeting. 
 
 " Have you seen Fizzums ? " he asked abruptly, 
 as soon as he was near enough to make himself 
 heard. 
 
 " No." Ursula's accent was rising, the accent 
 of optimism. 
 
 Harry came up the steps two at a time, and 
 sat down on the rail. As she saw his pallor and 
 heard his quick, short breathing, Ursula told her- 
 self that something was seriously amiss. 
 
 " Where can he be ? " he said anxiously. 
 
 "Really, I haven't seen him since yesterday 
 morning. Is he lost ? " 
 
 " We can't find him anywhere. We have been 
 hunting, for an hour. He came down, early this 
 morning, and Cousin Eudora saw him going to- 
 wards the barn. None of the men have seen 
 him ; but he didn't come back to breakfast."
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 231 
 
 " Our barn, or yours ? " 
 
 " Ours. Joe and Mike were both there, milk- 
 ing ; but they haven't seen anything of him." 
 
 " Try our barn, then," Ursula suggested prac- 
 tically. "He spends half his time at Uncle 
 Steve's heels. He may be in the harness-room 
 with him now." 
 
 Bareheaded and in her fresh white gown, she 
 led the way to the huge barns, up into the empty 
 harness-room, down between the dusty, fragrant 
 mows, and on into the long cowhouse where the 
 tawny Jerseys stood in their stanchions, philo- 
 sophically chewing their cuds until such time as 
 they should be turned out again into the dewy 
 pasture. The whole place echoed with her calls ; 
 but no childish voice came in answer. 
 
 Out in front of the barn, Ursula paused. 
 
 " Let me see," she said thoughtfully. " He 
 prowls all over the upper pasture. What if you 
 look up there ? " 
 
 Harry took a step or two forward ; then he 
 turned. 
 
 " Aren't you coming, too ? " 
 
 For an instant, Ursula glanced downward at 
 the dainty gown and French slippers which she 
 had donned in honor of a promised call from 
 Kingsley. Then she looked up at Harry's ex- 
 pectant, anxious face.
 
 232 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 " Of course I am coming. I know the pasture 
 better than you do, for it is one of my favorite 
 places, and I have explored it, from one end to 
 the other. Jack and I were there, only day be- 
 fore yesterday ; and we found Fizzums sitting on 
 a rock at the very top of the pasture, playing 
 hunter, with a black stump for a bear and a 
 cornstalk for a gun. He probably is there now." 
 
 Harry smiled down at her gratefully. He felt 
 an irresistible longing to pat the shining brown 
 hair that was moving along beside his shoulder. 
 Ursula seemed to him only a child ; but, with a 
 half smile, he admitted to himself the childish 
 pique with which she would receive any such 
 demonstration on his part. Instead, he con- 
 tented himself with saying, 
 
 "You are a comforting sort of girl, Ursula. 
 Sure you don't mind the climb ? " 
 
 In her secret heart, she did mind it exceed- 
 ingly, for the morning was a sultry one, and, 
 moreover, she was remote from the source of 
 new slippers. Nevertheless, it sufficed for her 
 that it was Harry Arterburn who was in such 
 evident trouble, and she answered gayly, 
 
 " Do I ever mind a walk ? Come ; this is the 
 way." 
 
 She accepted the needless steadying of his 
 hand across the brook where the turfy edges
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 233 
 
 were punctured with round black holes made by 
 the hoofs of drinking cattle. Then she led the 
 way alertly up the stony slope, through the thick 
 dark shadow of the pine grove and out upon the 
 open hillside of the upper pasture. Up and up 
 they followed the trail, past sweetbriar bushes, 
 past patches of sweet fern, past great gray 
 boulders, each set in its encircling wreath of 
 clustering brakes. Now and then they halted 
 to call and call again ; then they went forward 
 swiftly, with Ursula too far in the lead to 
 see the growing whiteness of her companion's 
 face. 
 
 At the summit, however, even she paused for 
 breath, while Harry came forward to her side. 
 They stood there together for a few minutes, 
 alternately calling and looking about them, not 
 at the view which opened out grandly before 
 them to the very foothills of the "White Moun- 
 tains, but over the pasture at their feet, question- 
 ing every rock and boulder to see whether it 
 might be the hiding-place of the chubby little 
 figure they had sought so far in vain. At last, 
 Harry turned away. 
 
 " He's not there," he said. " What is over 
 beyond those trees ? " 
 
 Already Ursula had started down the trail. 
 
 " Oh, nobody ever goes over there," she an-
 
 234 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 swered carelessly. " It's only the Bottomless 
 Pool." 
 
 " The what ? " Harry asked sharply. 
 
 "The Bottomless Pool. You know every 
 well-regulated farm owns one. But he isn't over 
 there. It is all fenced off, and nobody goes near 
 it, once a year. Where are you going ? " 
 
 " To the pool." 
 
 " There's no use." 
 
 " Perhaps not. Still, I know Fizzums." 
 
 She followed him closely. No longer had she 
 any cause to take thought for her slippers which 
 already were hopeless wrecks. But Harry was 
 in the lead now, and even Ursula, strong and 
 lithe as a girl could be, was hard pressed to keep 
 up with his rapid pace. They were dropping a 
 little behind the crest of the hill that blotted the 
 view from sight ; but, over the tree-tops before 
 them, the blue peak of Ascutney shot upward, 
 boldly outlined against the paler blue of the sky. 
 They halted at the fence which shut in the still 
 black pool. Then Harry turned away. 
 
 " Nothing here," he said briefly. 
 
 " "Wait ! " Ursula's tone was sharp with fear. 
 "What's that?" 
 
 His glance followed her pointing finger. Then, 
 for his only answer, he vaulted the fence and 
 stooped to pick up the little handkerchief, smudgy
 
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 235 
 
 and knotted at the corners, one of which was 
 marked with a single letter. 
 
 "It's it's " The words came thickly 
 
 from his tongue. Then suddenly he dropped on 
 the long, rank grass which edged the pool. 
 
 For the moment, Ursula could not have felt 
 more absolutely alone with Harry, had they been 
 sole survivors of a shipwreck on the edge of the 
 Antarctic Continent. It was the first time she 
 had seen any one lose consciousness, and she had 
 no restoratives at hand, even if she had known 
 how to use them. Out of sight and sound of the 
 house, she could call no one to her aid, and she 
 dared not leave Harry alone, so perilously near 
 the edge of that black, still, stagnant pool. The 
 terror of her position swept over her and shook 
 her healthy nerves. Then she gripped her cour- 
 age fast with both hands, and tried to think what 
 she ought to do, in the face of such a crisis. 
 
 There was a long sound of tearing, as she 
 forced her way between the wires of the high 
 fence; then she stumbled over a sharp stone 
 which cut away the whole side of one of her slip- 
 pers. Too intent upon her work to heed tearing 
 or cuts, however, she reached Harry's side and 
 bent over him in increasing alarm. Only his 
 breath, which came at intervals in short, jerking 
 gasps, showed her that life was still in his keep-
 
 236 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 ing. How long it would remain in his keeping, 
 she was afraid to ask herself. Then it was that, 
 for the first time in their friendship, Ursula Thain 
 realized the place which Harry Arterburn had 
 come to fill in her girlish life. Child as she was, 
 she realized it then ; but it was not until years 
 afterwards that, looking backward, she understood 
 what might have been the meaning of that hour. 
 
 She could do but little. Gently she moved 
 him until he lay more comfortably ; she loosened 
 the clothing at his neck and put water on his 
 face, shuddering slightly as the lifeless drops 
 touched the equally lifeless forehead. Then, with 
 one lingering look along the path they had come, 
 she sat down beside him to wait. For what she 
 was waiting, she could not tell. 
 
 It seemed to her that the moments dragged on 
 endlessly. Slowly the sun swept up across the 
 sky until it found a gap in the trees through 
 which it could stare remorselessly down into the 
 still, white face. The jersey cows, long since 
 turned out from the barn, sauntered up to the 
 fence and peered through it at her, nuzzling and 
 jostling each other to make sure of getting the 
 best point for observation. At length, Nicodemus, 
 always a tramp by nature, came jogging along 
 the path on his daily tour of inspection. The 
 sight brought Ursula a certain courage. It was
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 237 
 
 possible that Nicodemus might have a human 
 companion. It was also possible that, lacking a 
 companion, he might be sent galloping off in 
 search of help, like the fabled dogs of the Saint 
 Bernard. She waited a moment to assure her- 
 self that he was alone. Then she softly called 
 him to her side. 
 
 Nicodemus heard the voice and paused, with 
 his ears and his left forefoot raised, to dis- 
 cover whence it came. She repeated the call, 
 and there was a sudden scattering of the cows, 
 as the dog dashed in among them, slid under the 
 fence and, with a joyous yelp, plumped himself 
 into her lap and fell to licking her face in a per- 
 fect frenzy of devotion. 
 
 " Nicodemus ! " she ordered him. " Nicodemus, 
 go find massa and bring him here." 
 
 "With an answering plunge, Nicodemus sprang 
 upward with his forepaws on her shoulders, and 
 began pressing damp kisses into the hollow of 
 her ear. 
 
 " Oh, Nicodemus, you stupid ! Go find some- 
 body. Eats ! Nicodemus, sic' 'em ! " 
 
 Without an instant's hesitation, Nicodemus 
 leaped down, and began digging an imaginary 
 woodchuck from under Harry Arterburn's left 
 hip. Ursula sprang to catch him ; but his stumpy 
 tail eluded her grasp, and his active little paws
 
 238 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 were hard at work. It proved to be good work, 
 too. The steady jog, jog, against Harry's side 
 slowly sent some message to the dulled brain. 
 He stirred a little and opened his eyes. 
 
 Joy brought swift inspiration to Ursula. The 
 energetic paws of Nicodemus had pulled Harry's 
 coat aside until she could see a note-book and the 
 end of a pencil in his breast pocket. She took 
 them, tore out a leaf and wrote a few words. 
 Then she took off the white ribbon that belted 
 her gown, tied the note into it and tied the rib- 
 bon around the neck of Nicodemus who showed 
 his masculine love of finery by standing motion- 
 less to be adorned. Then she bent over the dog 
 and kissed him between his tattered ears. 
 
 " I'm sorry, Nicodemus dear," she said softly ; 
 " but it is the only way. Now Go home ! " 
 
 There was a swift, sharp blow, a yelp of pain, 
 and then Nicodemus, white bow and all, went 
 scudding up the path and vanished over the crest 
 of the hill, while Ursula settled herself for the 
 little time of waiting which must remain to her. 
 
 It proved to be a long time of waiting, how- 
 ever, for Nicodemus brought no answering mes- 
 sage. Slowly Harry's full consciousness came 
 back to him, and his color changed from bluish 
 gray to the more normal tint of healthy man- 
 hood ; but it was long before he could sit up,
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 239 
 
 longer still ,before, leaning on Ursula's strong 
 young arm, he could attempt the difficult walk 
 back to the house. Kingsley saw them coming, 
 and met them at the barn. 
 
 " What has happened ? " he asked abruptly. 
 
 " Mr. Arterburn felt faint ; he went up the 
 hill too fast," Ursula answered for him, hoping to 
 forestall any reference to Fizzums, for she saw 
 from Kingsley's face that the passing hours had 
 brought no news of the child. 
 
 Her care was in vain. 
 
 " Eex," Harry spoke with perfect quiet ; " I 
 am afraid Fizzums has fallen into the pond on 
 the hill. We found his handkerchief close be- 
 side it, inside the fence. Will you get the men 
 to go up there ? I am afraid I " 
 
 "Steady." Kingsley's voice was low and 
 level, and he slipped his arm around the burden 
 which was fast becoming too heavy for Ursula's 
 strength. "That's all right; come right over 
 against me. Now we'll put you on Mrs. Myers's 
 couch, and then I'll see about things for you. I 
 don't think the little chap is drowned. Most 
 likely it is a false alarm ; but I'll go up and look 
 the ground over. Here we are. Now stretch 
 yourself out, while Ursula gets you something to 
 put a little life into you. Jack, will you go down 
 to the house and ask Nathalie to come over ?
 
 240 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 Tell her there's nothing to worry about. Take 
 care of yourself, Hal. I'll bring you some good 
 news before long." And he swung himself over 
 the veranda rail, and went striding away out of 
 sight. 
 
 In the late twilight, he joined Nathalie who 
 was sitting in the doorway, holding her throb- 
 bing head between her hands. Harry had fallen 
 asleep at last ; she could do nothing more but sit 
 there, and watch the darkness creep down from 
 the hillsides and up from the distant river, the 
 pitiless darkness which would mark the passing 
 of the last day of the life of Fizzums. For 
 Harry's sake, the girl had kept up bravely. Now 
 that she was free to give way to her sorrow, the 
 tears refused to come at her bidding. She sat 
 there, stunned and apathetic, until Kingsley 
 dropped down beside her. 
 
 " I have good news for you," he said. 
 
 She started up. 
 
 " Fizzums ? " 
 
 " No. I'm sorry, Nathalie ; but it's not that. 
 It is only that Mac Holden will be here at nine, 
 to-night." 
 
 "Rex! You dear old comfort!" Her voice 
 broke. 
 
 " Of course I'm a comfort," he answered 
 cheerily. "You can't get on without me, you
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 241 
 
 know. I wired Mac, this noon, when Hal came 
 home, for I thought he would better have some- 
 body look him over. I had great luck, too. I 
 caught Mac just as he and Aunt Ted were leav- 
 ing Boston for Halifax, and they'll be here, to- 
 night." 
 
 " She is coming, too ? " 
 
 " Yes, I thought she'd better. Mrs. Myers will 
 take them in. I'm going over, in a few minutes, 
 to tell her to get the rooms ready. She won't 
 mind, and this house is full." 
 
 Nathalie's lower lip quivered. 
 
 " It is the first good news I have heard, to-day. 
 I can bear it better, with Dr. Holden here. But, 
 Kex, what could I do without you ? " 
 
 With the touch of an older brother, he drew 
 her over against his shoulder. 
 
 "Let it cry itself out, Nathalie," he said 
 gently. " It's got to come ; but I'm so sorry." 
 
 " But it is both Fizzums and Hal," she said at 
 length. " This morning, I should have said that 
 one alone would kill me ; but here I am, with 
 Fizzums gone, and Hal just coming back from 
 the other edge of things. Kex, Harry mustn't be 
 ill." 
 
 " Trust Mac," he advised her. 
 
 She raised her head. 
 
 " do."
 
 242 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 The dusk gathered fast and faster, while they 
 sat there in silence. Then, all of a sudden, they 
 sprang up. Out from the open barn door there 
 sauntered a chubby little figure who paused, just 
 across the threshold, to stretch himself and give 
 a mighty yawn. By his side trudged Nicodemus 
 from whose neck dangled the sodden ends of a 
 much-chewed white satin ribbon. 
 
 " Fizzums ! " 
 
 "What?" The voice expressed bland con- 
 tent. 
 
 " Where have you been ? " 
 
 " In the barn." 
 
 "All day?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " What have you been doing ? " 
 
 Fizzums wriggled out of Nathalie's embrace. 
 
 "I went out, early this morning, to play 
 'Lijah in the Wilderness in the hay, and see if 
 the wavens would come. I tooked some cookie, 
 so, if they didn't, I wouldn't be hungry. No- 
 body came, so I ated the cookie, and bimeby I 
 went asleep. Nicodemus came ; but he wasn't a 
 waven. He went asleep, too, just like me, and 
 we've only just awaked up." 
 
 " But we thought you were drowned." 
 
 " Where ? " Fizzums spoke with sudden in- 
 terest.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 243 
 
 " Up in the pool on the hill." 
 
 " Hh ! I wouldn't go vere. Vere's a bogey- 
 man lives inside it." 
 
 " But they found your handkerchief close be- 
 side it." 
 
 " Oh, yes, I merember now. I went up to 
 take some cucumbers to the bogey-man, and mine 
 handkerfins was all mixed up with the cucum- 
 bers, so I frowed it away. It wasn't a very big 
 one, and it had a hole in it, too." 
 
 Nathalie dropped his hand and turned towards 
 the house. 
 
 " Where are you going ? " Fizzums inquired. 
 
 " To tell Harry that you have come. Your 
 running away has made poor Harry very ill, 
 Fizzums." 
 
 " I'm sorry," Fizzums said affably. " I didn't 
 know it. Now, if you please, I think I'd like 
 mine dinner."
 
 244 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 
 
 T TTTERLY exhausted by the exciting events 
 V-/ of the day, Ursula had gone to bed at dusk, 
 and was just preparing to cry herself to sleep, 
 when she heard John come leaping up the stairs, 
 two steps at a time. The next instant, two lusty 
 fists descended upon her door. 
 
 "Wake up, Ursula! Fizzuras has come back." 
 
 "Jack!" 
 
 " Yes, he's been doing Elijah under the juniper 
 tree, only he overslept himself and missed the 
 ravens, so he came home ravenous. That's a 
 borrowed pun ; but no matter." 
 
 Ursula struggled into a wrapper and joined 
 him in the hall. 
 
 " Little wretch ! And how is Mr. Arter- 
 burn ? " 
 
 " Better, Rex said. He just came over to tell 
 us about Fizzums, and that Dr. Holden and Mrs. 
 Farrington will be here, to-night." 
 
 Ursula drew a long breath. 
 
 "I am so glad. They all think that Dr. 
 Holden can raise the dead ; and then he has
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 245 
 
 known about these turns of Mr. Arterburn, be- 
 fore now." 
 
 John sat down beside her on the top stair. 
 
 " From all I hear, you must have acted up like 
 a good fellow, Ursula." 
 
 " I don't see how." 
 
 " Not losing your head, and all that." 
 
 She laughed scornfully. 
 
 "Only idiots do that. Besides, I didn't have 
 head enough to do me any good. I had never 
 seen anybody like that before, and I didn't know 
 a solitary thing to do." 
 
 " But you did it." 
 
 " Yes, I just sat there and watched him, and 
 wondered if somebody would ever come. Oh, 
 Jackie, it was horrible. I was sure he was go- 
 ing to die there alone, and I didn't dare leave 
 him, within three feet of the pool, for fear he 
 would move and roll down into it. It seemed to 
 me I sat there about seventeen years." 
 
 " By the way," John inquired suddenly ; 
 " where did Nicodemus get his white ribbon ? 
 Kex says Nathalie insists upon it that it is your 
 belt." ' 
 
 " Nicodemus ? Did he go home, after all ? " 
 
 " He came home just now with Fizzums, and he 
 had on a tag end of a huge white satin bow. We 
 hadn't heard of any wedding where he had been
 
 246 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 asked to officiate, and Fizzums says he doesn't 
 know where the bow came from." 
 
 " Oh, Jack ! " And Ursula burst out laughing 
 nervously. " That Nicodemus ! He came up to 
 me, by the pool, and I tried to send him home. 
 At first, he thought I meant woodchucks, and he 
 half undermined Mr. Arterburn. Then I wrote 
 a note and tied it to him with my belt, and 
 thumped him as hard as I could. He started for 
 home, and that was the last I saw of him." 
 
 " And the last you'll see of your note," John 
 predicted, quite unaware of the fact that, years 
 after, the tattered scrawl would come to light 
 from the depths of one of Harry's pockets. 
 "Next time you want a trusty messenger, 
 Ursula, I would pass Nicodemus by and take a 
 cow. But Rex told mother that Mr. Arterburn 
 is worrying about you. It seems that he asked 
 you to go with him, because he felt queer and 
 didn't dare go alone ; and now he is afraid that 
 it will lay you up." 
 
 Ursula smiled a little unsteadily. 
 
 " Nonsense, Jackie ! I don't lay up as easily 
 as all that, and I am glad I could be the one to 
 go, only really I didn't do anything at all. But, 
 ever since I came to New York, Mr. Arterburn 
 and you have been my truest friends. Perhaps 
 some day I shall get a chance to show you, too,
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 247 
 
 that I appreciate it." Then she rose and stood 
 with her hand resting on his shoulder. " Good- 
 night, Jackie, and don't let anything bad happen 
 to you. I never could bear that." And she 
 turned and went back to her room. 
 
 Early the next morning, she sat on the steps 
 of the veranda, rebuking the faithless Nico- 
 demus. Under her caustic tongue, Nicodemus 
 was fast losing his perkiness ; but Ursula was as 
 fresh and unruffled as if she had devoted the 
 previous day to a veranda chair and a soothing 
 book. 
 
 " Oh, you untrusty servant ! " she was saying, 
 as she set the dog up in front of her and steadied 
 him by his forepaws. " Sit and think of your 
 
 sins. Aren't you ashamed of yourself for 
 
 No ! Sit up ! You can do it, when there's a 
 biscuit in sight. Who ate up a note, like a 
 horrid, dissipated little postman ? " 
 
 As Nicodemus vainly sought to bury his face 
 in the palm of her admonishing hand, Ursula 
 heard a low laugh behind her. Letting Nico- 
 demus topple over and go sprawling down the 
 steps, she rose to greet the guest. 
 
 " Is it Dr. Holden ? How is Mr. Arterburn ? " 
 
 For an instant, their eyes met with full ap- 
 proval on both sides. She saw a tall, broad- 
 shouldered man with thick yellow hair and keen
 
 248 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 blue eyes. He looked down on a pretty, eager 
 face where, for the moment, all the brilliancy 
 had given place to wishfulness. 
 
 " Yes, I am Dr. Holden, and I suspect that you 
 are Miss Ursula Thain." 
 
 " And Mr. Arterburn ? " she demanded. 
 
 "Much better, this morning." 
 
 " Have you been over there so early ? " 
 
 "It's not so early, and doctors haven't any 
 especial hours, you know. Besides, Mr. Arter- 
 burn is one of my best friends." 
 
 " I think he's mine, too," Ursula said slowly. 
 
 He looked down at her with the grave, intent 
 smile which seemed characteristic of him. 
 
 " Yes, he told me you proved it, yesterday." 
 
 "But I didn't do anything." 
 
 " There wasn't much that you could do. You 
 had no stimulants, and it wasn't safe to leave 
 him, to get any. Some girls would have gone 
 rushing away in search of help. It was so much 
 better that you didn't. But he told me to find 
 out how you are, this morning." 
 
 She brushed his words aside impatiently. 
 
 "Nothing ever hurts me. "What made him 
 faint away ? " 
 
 Dr. Holden hesitated. Then suddenly he re- 
 alized that it was safe to trust the girl before 
 him.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 249 
 
 " His heart isn't quite right," he answered 
 briefly. " It is better not to say much about it ; 
 but it hasn't been right, for a good while. All 
 winter long, he has worked too hard. I thought 
 he would come out of it without any sharp at- 
 tack; but his anxiety about Fizzums, and his 
 climbing the hill too fast " 
 
 " Was I to blame ? " she interrupted. 
 
 " You ? " 
 
 " Yes. I went ahead." Her voice vibrated 
 with sudden fear. 
 
 Dr. Holden's smile was reassuring. 
 
 " It wouldn't have made any difference, if you 
 had been dragging him back. When it comes to 
 a question of those children, Harry Arterburn 
 never thinks of himself." 
 
 " I'd like to choke that Fizzums," Ursula mut- 
 tered vengefully. 
 
 To her surprise, Dr. Holden burst out laughing. 
 
 " I Well, I wish he could get a change 
 
 of heart," he answered. 
 
 " Now, Mac, changes of heart don't grow on 
 bargain counters, and you were an imp once, 
 yourself." 
 
 He turned with a boyish eagerness. 
 
 " Aunt Ted ! Up so early ? " 
 
 " Yes. I wanted to hear from Hal." Mrs. 
 Farrington came slowly forward and rested her
 
 250 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 hands on Ursula's shoulders. "And this is 
 Ursula Thain? I saw you once, child, just 
 about a year ago. I have always remembered 
 you, too, you and your father." 
 
 Ursula looked up expectantly into the womanly 
 face before her. 
 
 " I think I know when," she answered, with a 
 little tinge of shyness. 
 
 " At New Haven ? Yes. And I never forgot 
 it, because you and your father were on such 
 intimate terms. I liked to watch you, for my 
 father and I have been just such friends. Is he 
 well?" 
 
 Ursula's face lighted. 
 
 "Isn't he fine?" she burst out with the en- 
 thusiasm of a child, quite forgetful that she was 
 talking to one of the foremost novelists of the 
 day, a woman in whose presence her elegant 
 little aunt looked like an overdressed doll. " But 
 what do you suppose we all would have said, 
 that day, if anybody had told us that, within the 
 year, I should have been up here with you and 
 Nathalie and Eex ? " 
 
 Mrs. Farrington laughed at the girlish question. 
 
 " Chance does strange things. At least, I am 
 grateful to it for bringing me into such a lovely 
 place. Is Harry going to be well enough so you 
 can leave him, to-day, Mac ? "
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 251 
 
 Dr. Holden looked a little troubled. 
 
 " I don't want to part company, Aunt Ted ; 
 but I would like to watch him, for a few days. 
 Do you mind ? " 
 
 " I don't mind anything, dear boy. I'll run 
 over to Jackson and spend a few days with 
 Allyn and Cicely, and you can pick me up there. 
 As long as we get our trip in the end, I don't 
 care how long you delay it." 
 
 However, at the breakfast table, Mrs. Myers 
 protested vehemently. Mrs. Farrington de- 
 murred, then yielded, and John and Ursula retired 
 from the dining-room to mingle their prayers 
 that Harry Arterburn's convalescence might 
 be a slow one. It was no trivial blessing to 
 be for a week in the same house with Mrs. 
 Theodora McAlister Farrington, to say noth- 
 ing of her nephew and namesake, Dr. McAlister 
 Holden. 
 
 "Do you know, Mac, I have rather enjoyed 
 the visit," Mrs. Farrington said, as they walked 
 down the lane in the twilight, one night. " Mrs. 
 Myers has been perfect in her hospitality, and I 
 like her so much better than I expected. Your 
 Aunt Babe hasn't been quite fair to her, and then 
 my experience with her husband wasn't alto- 
 gether reassuring." 
 
 Dr. Holden's laugh startled a squirrel from a
 
 252 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 stone by the roadside, and sent him scampering 
 away in search of shelter. 
 
 "Do you mean the time he brayed himself 
 into the middle of your dinner party ? " he 
 asked. 
 
 " Yes, and the time he took me for a penny- 
 dreadful woman. Jack asked me, last night, 
 if I had ever met his father." 
 
 " What did you tell him ? " 
 
 "The truth; but I edited it, and then I 
 changed the subject. Mac, that's a fine boy." 
 
 Dr. Holden assented with unexpected fervor. 
 
 " He is. I have been watching him, and he's 
 as sound as a nut. He will be a good friend for 
 Rex, too. I wish they were in the same class." 
 
 "Don't worry about that," Mrs. Farrington 
 returned philosophically. " You are quite likely 
 to get your wish, for Rex is so lazy that he may 
 be dropped, any day." 
 
 They walked on in silence for a time. At 
 length Dr. Holden spoke, and the words came 
 with some difficulty. 
 
 " Aunt Ted ? " 
 
 " Well, Mac ? " she asked, as he came to a full stop. 
 
 The difficulty seemed to increase. 
 
 " Aunt Ted," he said at length ; " my mother 
 is in Montana, and I think, as long as she isn't 
 here, I'd like to have a talk with you."
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 253 
 
 Mrs. Farrington stretched out her hand to his. 
 
 " Thank you, my dear boy. Shall we sit down 
 here for a little while ? " 
 
 He nodded, and they took their places on a 
 rough board seat under a beech-tree. Around 
 them, already the white birches were growing 
 misty in the twilight ; from above their heads 
 sounded the last good-nights of the drowsy birds. 
 
 " Well, Mac, what is it all about ? " she asked, 
 after a long interval. 
 
 "It is about a good many things," he an- 
 swered. " One of them is Harry Arterburn." 
 
 " Isn't he coming out all right ? " Mrs. Farring- 
 ton asked quickly. 
 
 " Coming out, yes ; all right, no. He isn't go- 
 ing to be an invalid, by any means ; but he will 
 never be a really strong man. With care, he 
 may outgrow this heart trouble, even now ; but 
 overwork and any excitement are going to bring 
 on these attacks, and every attack will make his 
 outgrowing it a little less likely." 
 
 Mrs. Farrington stared gravely at the yellow 
 head beside her. She could not see the eyes, for 
 Dr. Holden was bending forward, watching the 
 figures he was tracing in the earth of the path- 
 way. 
 
 " It is a dreary outlook, Mac," she said regret- 
 fully. " Is there any remedy ? "
 
 254 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 He shook his head. 
 
 " I can't see much. It is a hard case, where a 
 man needs nothing but rest and freedom from 
 care, and can't take either. He won't save him- 
 self in the least. He loves work for the mere 
 pleasure of getting it done ; but, even if he 
 didn't, he couldn't afford to stop. He is in an 
 endless treadmill, with those children goading 
 on and on. Sometimes it's an awfully cruel 
 world, Aunt Ted. The worst of it is, there's no 
 way of evening things up. My profession is 
 bringing me in four times as much as I need ; 
 but I can't share it with Harry Arterburn. I 
 can only stand by, and see him working himself 
 to death for the lack of something I have and 
 don't need." 
 
 The words had a ring of desperation and, as 
 he looked up at her, Mrs. Farrington was sur- 
 prised to see something glitter on his long yellow 
 lashes. 
 
 "And then there's Nathalie," he went on 
 swiftly. " The time has come when she must be 
 told about this trouble, so that she can be on her 
 guard, and guard Hal from all the worry that 
 she can. Do you realize what it is to put such a 
 strain on a girl of her age ? She will have no 
 one back of her, and she adores Hal. I must 
 warn her. It is necessary that she should know ;
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 255 
 
 but do you wonder I shrink from telling 
 her ? " 
 
 " You are sure it is necessary ? " 
 
 " Yes, if there's to be any chance of a cure. 
 It is the one hope that, by sparing him. in every 
 possible way, he may in time outgrow it. It 
 largely depends on her pluck and endurance; 
 but I have seen worse cases than Harry Arter- 
 burn's pull out of it. I only hope he may." 
 
 " Do you know, Mac," Mrs. Farrington said 
 thoughtfully ; " I sometimes think you love 
 Harry Arterburn best of all your patients." 
 
 Suddenly he rose and stood in the path, facing 
 her. 
 
 "No, Aunt Ted. That is the real thing I 
 wanted to say to you. I love Nathalie better." 
 
 " Mac ! My dear boy ! " 
 
 " I thought perhaps you would have seen it," 
 he said steadily. "It is nothing new. Two 
 years ago, when she was only a child, I knew the 
 hope for the sake of which I was willing to work 
 and wait. She is older now, eighteen, and things 
 are going to bear down on her hard, for the next 
 few years. Aunt Ted, do you think it is too 
 soon ? " 
 
 Putting out both hands, she took his two hands 
 and drew him down beside her. 
 
 "Mac," she said, as she looked straight into
 
 256 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 his eyes ; " before I advise you, tell me one thing 
 truly. Are you saying this because you care for 
 Nathalie Arterburn, or because you love Natha- 
 lie Arterburn's brother ? " 
 
 The blue eyes met her eyes gravely, unflinch- 
 ingly. 
 
 " Aunt Ted, I should be a brute, if I married a 
 girl I didn't love, just out of pity for her 
 brother." 
 
 " Then my blessing go with you, dear boy I " 
 she said slowly. " She is a superb girl, and de- 
 serves even you." 
 
 " And you think mother " 
 
 ""We none of us could ask anything better, 
 Mac. When you are ready, let me write to your 
 mother." 
 
 " You always have spoiled me, Aunt Ted," he 
 said gratefully. " And you don't think she is 
 too young ? " 
 
 " I am not sure what to say, Mac," she said, 
 after a pause. " As a rule, I don't believe in a 
 girl's marrying so young ; but Nathalie is in 
 some ways very mature, and the case is a little 
 unusual. As you say, there is no one back of 
 her, and the time has come when she needs some 
 one to hold her up." 
 
 " Of course," he said quietly ; " I have no 
 reason to count too much on the future. I may
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 257 
 
 find that she does not care for me, after 
 all." 
 
 Mrs. Farrington's eyes rested proudly on the 
 manlike face, while her mind swept backward 
 over the times she had watched him and Nath- 
 alie together. 
 
 " I think she does, Mac." 
 
 The color rushed hotly upwards across his 
 cheeks and brow. 
 
 " I hope so," he said briefly. " I have done 
 my best to have it so." 
 
 " Harry will be happy about it," Mrs. Farring- 
 ton suggested. 
 
 " Yes," he assented ; " I think he will. We 
 are close friends, and I know he has worried 
 about Nathalie." 
 
 " Mac ! Does he know his danger ? " 
 
 " Yes, at its worst. He has faced it like a man, 
 and put his house in order; but he means to 
 fight like a hero for every chance that he can 
 get." 
 
 "The dear fellow!" 
 
 Dr. Holden's smile was very sad. 
 
 " He has known, for more than two years, that 
 things weren't straight with him ; but he begged 
 me to keep still about it. He has talked to me 
 again and again about Nathalie ; but she was so 
 young that I felt it wasn't fair to her, to tell him
 
 258 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 all I was hoping. Now, Aunt Ted, I think the 
 time has come." 
 
 Under cover of the growing darkness, her 
 hand shut over his. 
 
 " Yes, Mac, I think it has. And, if everything 
 comes out as you wish it, say to the dear girl 
 that Aunt Ted is ready to stand, as far as can be, 
 in the mother's place." 
 
 " Thank you, Aunt Ted ; it's like you." Then 
 he rose and stood before her, drawn to his fullest 
 height. " To-morrow," he added slowly ; " I 
 must tell her about Hal ; but, before I speak of 
 him, I shall have asked Nathalie Arterburn to be 
 my wife."
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 259 
 
 CHAPTEK NINETEEN 
 
 , Jackie, why is it necessary for one 
 weary head to have twenty pillows to 
 rest on?" Ursula protested, while she stitched 
 away diligently at the huge white seal she was 
 embroidering on a square of blue satin. 
 
 " Because the head is so full of wisdom that no 
 one pillow will support it," he replied tranquilly. 
 " How many does this make, really ? " 
 
 "Fourteen. They are horridly monotonous, 
 too, nothing but this everlasting blue and white. 
 Don't you think a crimson one would set the 
 others off, or else an orange and black ? " 
 
 " It would set itself off, out of the window," 
 he returned. "You'd better not waste your 
 work. Fourteen blue ones will do for a starter. 
 Most likely Jack Dorrien will have a few." 
 
 " Are you going to put out a Jack of Hearts 
 for a door-plate?" she inquired, while she 
 threaded a needle. "It seems to me I would 
 have had names enough to go round." 
 
 " Never you mind the name. Jack is a good 
 fellow."
 
 260 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 " I am much more interested in knowing 
 whether he has good taste," Ursula interrupted 
 loftily. " You are going to have such a sweet 
 room that I hope he won't put any trash into it." 
 
 " He's safe. His father is an artist." 
 
 Ursula shook her head. 
 
 " All the more dangerous. Mr. Dorrien is an 
 impressionist, and Jack may fill up the walls 
 with stuff his father can't sell. Still, you can 
 rise triumphant, for you have that French poster 
 that Nathalie gave you. I don't wish to be 
 critical, Jack, and I suppose it is choice ; but it 
 looks to me as if it had been washed and boiled, 
 without its being fast color." 
 
 " You're nothing but a Vandal," he answered. 
 " You'd like a whole menagerie of Barye beasts 
 in plaster." 
 
 " I know that. They're neat, and they don't 
 fade. I wanted you to get a plain couch cover, 
 instead of that thunder-and-lightning Indian 
 blanket. If it had been made here in New 
 York, Jack, you'd say it was hideous. Why 
 didn't you get one of Miss Eudora's drawn-in 
 rugs, if you are after primitive American art? 
 She had a beautiful one of cattails and poppies 
 growing out of an indigo lawn. It would have 
 added ever so much to your room." 
 
 " I'll leave it for yours. Where is mother ? "
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 261 
 
 "Packing curtains and such stuff. She told 
 me to tell you that the man was coming at ten, 
 to do the pictures. Oh, Jack, whatever shall I 
 do, when your room is a wilderness ? " 
 
 " Go and irrigate it with your tears," he sug- 
 gested. 
 
 " I shall. I am going to be so lonely. I can't 
 even have Nathalie any more. Whenever I go 
 there, Dr. Holden is either just going out, or just 
 coming in, and I do detest having a man always 
 under foot." The silk broke under Ursula's en- 
 ergetic fingers. 
 
 " How is Mr. Arterburn ? " 
 
 " Growing stronger, every day. He really be- 
 gins to look as he did, when I first saw him. He 
 will be ready for work, next week." 
 
 " But not for you." 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 " Alas, no. I am doomed to school. I sha'n't 
 like it half so well, and, besides, I shall miss see- 
 ing him, every day." 
 
 John raised his brows. 
 
 " I thought you detested having a man always 
 undei foot," he reminded her unkindly. 
 
 " Don't sit on rny work-basket," she remon- 
 strated hastily. " I do. Still, there is a differ- 
 ence in men, and I know that Dr. Holden is 
 neglecting his patients, just for the sake of
 
 262 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 mooning around with Nathalie Arterburn. I 
 am disappointed in Nathalie, anyway. I never 
 had supposed she was that kind of a girl." 
 
 " "Wait till your own turn comes 1 " 
 
 Ursula frowned. 
 
 " It won't," she said shortly. 
 
 " Don't be too sure. When it does, may I be 
 there to see ! " 
 
 " All right ; only don't forget your spectacles. 
 You will be so old, you can't see without them. 
 But, Jack, I really can't believe that you are 
 going so soon." 
 
 " To-morrow noon," he assured her. " Never 
 mind, though ; you and mother will be up there, 
 until Monday." 
 
 " Yes. It is a year ago this week that I first 
 saw the place," Ursula said thoughtfully. "I 
 didn't suppose then that I should ever be help- 
 ing a freshman to settle his room ; but then, I 
 used to think that freshmen were superior 
 beings. It is going to be a pretty room, Jackie ; 
 but I wish it were ten times as much so." 
 
 It was a pretty room when, three days later, 
 Mrs. Myers and Ursula straightened their Aching 
 backs and looked about them. It was by no 
 means orthodox to turn the picture hanging into 
 a maternal function, but Mrs. Myers had in- 
 sisted, and John had let her have her way.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 263 
 
 Even better than his mother, he had realized 
 that this was the last time she was to assume 
 full right to order his possessions. He could 
 never retrace the steps that led out of his boy- 
 hood. 
 
 " It is entirely too good a room for a pair of 
 freshmen," Ursula said, as she studied Nathalie's 
 poster which held the place of honor on the 
 southern wall. "Jack Dorrien knows more 
 girls than our Jack does, and they make his side 
 of the room look rather like a junk shop, with 
 their assorted contributions. Jackie's side is 
 perfect. Those two old prints and the Hermes 
 are almost too much riches for one wall. How 
 do you like it, Jackie ? " she added, as the door 
 opened, and John appeared. 
 
 " Good ; but you look utterly tired out." 
 
 " We are somewhat tuckered, as Miss Eudora 
 has it ; but we are so pleased with ourselves that 
 it will untuck us. We are ready to abdicate in 
 your favor." 
 
 " You deserve a rest. What are you going to 
 do?" 
 
 " Your mother is going to the hotel for a nap. 
 I am going in search of a mouthful of fresh air." 
 
 "It will take a lot," John observed. "Let's 
 go hunt clams." 
 
 Her face lighted.
 
 264 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 " Jack, an inspiration ! We'll go down to the 
 place where father and I were, last year." 
 
 " That's what I meant. Do you know where 
 it was ? " 
 
 " I can find it again. Are you sure you don't 
 need me, Aunt Ursula ? " 
 
 " Yes. I'll finish tying these curtains ; then I 
 will go over to the hotel. Aren't you too dusty 
 to go, as you are ? " 
 
 " No. I'll brush off the worst of it," Ursula 
 answered tranquilly. 
 
 Her aunt looked at her with some degree of 
 doubt. 
 
 "Well, perhaps it won't show. Be sure you 
 bring her back in time to dress for dinner, 
 John." 
 
 " Sure. Sorry you're too tired to go with us." 
 And the door shut behind them, leaving Mrs. 
 Myers to complete her task alone. 
 
 When all was done, she dropped into a chair 
 and regarded her work contentedly. There was 
 good reason, moreover, for her contentment. 
 Since the early months of her married life, Mrs. 
 Myers had known no such happy time as that 
 summer had brought her. Even now she was 
 unable to understand how it had come to pass 
 that of late she and her husband had become so 
 much more intimate than ever, how she had
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 265 
 
 coaxed him into taking more frequent holidays 
 at Blowmedowne, and why it was that, twice 
 that summer, it had been imperative that she 
 should run down to the city to spend a week 
 with him in the deserted house. On the second 
 of those occasions, too, she had lured Dr. Holden 
 into dining with her, and she had been willing 
 to sit silent and leave to her husband the full 
 enjoyment of their guest. A year before, she 
 would have kept the conversational ball entirely 
 within her grasp. 
 
 John, too, was a just cause for much pride. 
 It was something for a boy to take the last of 
 his final examinations on his sixteenth birthday, 
 and to come out from them, without a condition. 
 It was still more to come out from them, un- 
 tainted by conceit or prigginess. Her only child 
 was going far towards the fulfilment of all her 
 dreams for him, and, for them all, the future was 
 full of promise. She glanced up to the wall 
 above the desk where, as John had insisted, hung 
 the narrow frame that held the trio of home pic- 
 tures, Ursula, her husband and, in the middle, 
 her dainty little self, dressed in one of the even- 
 ing gowns which her boy liked so well. 
 
 " Yes, I ought to be so happy," she said to 
 herself. " I am happy, too, very happy ; only 
 this is the first giving up of my boy."
 
 266 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 " But it seems ages on ages ago," Ursula said, 
 an hour later, as she and John scrambled over 
 the rocks and sat down by the lonely cedar tree. 
 
 " You are sure it is the same place ? " 
 
 " Yes. My father sat just where you are, and 
 I was here. I wish he were with me now." 
 
 " Much obliged." 
 
 " Oh, there's plenty of room for three. Some 
 day, Jackie, I hope you will know him. It is 
 my dream to have us all live near each other." 
 
 " I am afraid you will find it hard to make 
 connections. But I did see him, you know." 
 
 "For a week. Besides, you have improved 
 since then. But isn't it strange, Jack ? I feel 
 so much nearer him here than I ever do in New 
 York." 
 
 "Because you didn't have on your company 
 manners here," John suggested. 
 
 "Possibly. And Mrs. Barrett and Mrs. Far- 
 rington were over there," Ursula tossed a horse- 
 shoe crab towards a ledge close by ; " and, clear 
 out there, Nathalie and Kex were. Don't you 
 wish they were there now ? " 
 
 " Thanks ; but I think" I prefer this, if you 
 don't mind," Kingsley's voice remarked in their 
 ears. "How do, Ursula? Howdy, Pettijack? 
 I just dropped in at Pierson, and found your 
 mother bathed in tears."
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 267 
 
 John started up in alarm. 
 
 " What has happened ? " 
 
 " Nothing ; only general misery at the pros- 
 pect of losing her first-born into the ravenous 
 maw of the world. I chirked her up by inform- 
 ing her that you weren't worth fussing about, 
 and that most likely the world would ship you 
 back to her as damaged goods. I took her over 
 to the hotel, and she rewarded my efforts at con- 
 solation by telling me you had gone clamming. 
 I immediately headed for this spot, for I knew 
 Ursula would want to see the place where first 
 we met." 
 
 " Yes," she assented pitilessly. " I wanted to 
 see it in its natural beauty, without any jarring 
 details." 
 
 " I'm no jarring detail. I'm a sophomore, and 
 an integral part of Yale." 
 
 " When did you come ? " 
 
 " This noon. I came in from Quantuck, yes- 
 terday, took the Fall Kiver boat to New York 
 and spent just an hour at the house, pulling sum- 
 mer clothes out of my trunk and stuffing winter 
 ones in. You just ought to see the way I left 
 my room ! It will give the mater an ague fit, 
 when she gets home." 
 
 " When does she come ? " 
 
 " In about three weeks. She and the Farring-
 
 268 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 tons and the Ainslees are going to stay till they 
 get frozen out, and Mac is going to take Nath- 
 alie over for a week." 
 
 " What about Mr. Arterburn ? " Ursula asked 
 jealously. 
 
 "He will live on faith and fried eels at a 
 restaurant." 
 
 " Not if my mother knows herself," John in- 
 terposed. " He can eat at our house. I'll men- 
 tion it to her, to-night." 
 
 "That's a good scheme," Kingsley said ap- 
 provingly. "It will keep Hal from forgetting 
 that he owns an inner man, and it will also sug- 
 gest to your mother that you aren't the only 
 youth worth the feeding. But you've a great 
 room, Pettijack. It is one of the best in 
 Pierson." 
 
 "Of course. So am I," John answered 
 serenely. 
 
 "Well, then see to it that your room isn't 
 better than your company. If I were you, I'd 
 write on the door ' No Admittance to Sports and 
 Grinds.' Then you would have a happy medium. 
 Where do you eat ? " 
 
 " Commons." 
 
 " All right. See you don't spill things. They 
 really ought to furnish . high chairs and tin trays 
 for the freshmen. I wish I were settled, Ursula ;
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 269 
 
 I'd like Mrs. Myers to bring you over to the 
 room ; but it's mostly a mess of packing boxes. 
 You'll have to wait till you come up for the 
 game." 
 
 " What game ? " 
 
 Kingsley eyed her despairingly. 
 
 "Ursula! Had you ever happened to hear 
 that Yale and Harvard sometimes kick each 
 other, and, incidentally, a football ? "Well, that 
 game. It is here, this fall, and you are coming." 
 
 " How do you know ? " 
 
 " Because the mater is going to bring you and 
 Nathalie to see it." 
 
 "And Dr. Holden?" 
 
 Kingsley shook his head in scorn. 
 
 " Sorry a bit of Mac will she ask. He's an old 
 man, too old for our crowd, even if he did have 
 the cheek to get himself engaged to Nathalie. 
 No ; it is my show, all mine. I shall take you ; 
 Pettijack will take Nathalie ; and the mater will 
 take herself along, as a peace offering to Mother 
 Grundy. Pettijack, do you realize that you are 
 a man now, and that an engaged girl can't be 
 seen in public with you, unless she lugs a chap- 
 eron along in her other hand ? It's a great thing 
 to arrive at man's estate ; but now and then it is 
 mighty inconvenient." 
 
 " It is also inconvenient to watch the sun set-
 
 270 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 ting, and to know that Jack promised to get me 
 back in time to prink for dinner," Ursula re- 
 minded him. 
 
 Kingsley straightened up from the comfortable 
 spot where he had been stretched out at full 
 length at her feet. 
 
 " Then I should advise you to be at it," he 
 said unceremoniously. " Your gown is so dusty 
 that it makes me feel sneezish, and you are going 
 to have company to dinner, too." 
 
 "Who?" 
 
 " In the language of the immortal Fizzums, 
 mineself. Your aunt invited me to come and 
 show Pettijack how to eat like a man and a 
 student. No more pap boats for you, Pettijack. 
 It will be grilled bones from this day forward." 
 
 John had already risen ; but Ursula lingered, 
 staring out with grave eyes at the trio of light- 
 houses and the gleaming waves beyond. 
 
 "He would have been so happy here, this 
 afternoon," she said slowly. "Jack, you can't 
 be thankful enough to have your father within 
 easy reach." 
 
 John's eyes suddenly grew as grave as her 
 own. 
 
 " I know that, Ursula," he answered. 
 
 But Kingsley heaved a portentous sigh. 
 
 " And mine is grinding out a sonata beside the
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 271 
 
 shore of the loud-roaring deep at Quantuck, 
 with four hours of solid seasickness between him 
 and his son. He's a nice gentleman and a great 
 composer ; but a precious poor sailor. Ten min- 
 utes in that boat on the sand over there would 
 do for him completely." Then he bent over and 
 offered his hand to Ursula. " If we must go, we 
 must," he said regretfully ; " but let us hope we 
 can sit together on these rocks, this time next 
 year." 
 
 But the next year held in its keeping other 
 plans for some of them.
 
 272 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 CHAPTER TWENTY 
 
 SWIFTLY and smoothly the train was sliding 
 along through grove and field and subur- 
 ban village, laying down the miles behind it 
 with a speed so great as to have outrun all sug- 
 gestion of hurry. Nevertheless, to John Myers, 
 sitting up straight and rigid in the forward car, 
 it seemed that the ride to New York was taking 
 two hundred hours instead of its allotted two. 
 To his impatient mind, the engineer was running 
 in perpetual fear of_ a hot box, and he sought to 
 measure his advance by counting the hurried 
 views of the Sound which dotted off the weary 
 miles. 
 
 That had been his leisure day of all the week. 
 Directly after lunch, he had gone back to his 
 room to brush up one of his lessons, before 
 getting off his mid-week letter home. On the 
 way, he had stopped at the post-office to find one 
 of Ursula's bulky scrawls awaiting him and, once 
 in his room, he had cast himself down on the 
 window seat to decipher it at his ease. As he 
 had stopped to turn one of the later pages, he
 
 URSULAS FEESHMAN 273 
 
 had caught sight of Kingsley Barrett who was 
 coming down the street at a pace quite remark- 
 able for a person of his leisurely habits. The 
 window flew open, and John leaned out. 
 
 " Oh, Kex ! Coming up ? " 
 
 Kingsley glanced upward ; but there was no 
 trace of his customary joviality in his face. 
 
 " I am coming. Is Dorrien there ? " 
 
 " No. He has recitation, this hour." 
 
 " All right. I wanted to see you alone." 
 
 It took a most undue space of time for Kings- 
 ley to mount the one flight of stairs, and his step 
 dragged perceptibly, as he entered the room. 
 
 " What do you want ? " John asked lazily, 
 without stirring from his place by the window. 
 
 "I was after you." Kingsley crossed to the 
 table and began fumbling with the papers there. 
 
 "Well, here I am." 
 
 Kingsley waited a moment in silence. Then 
 he faced about. 
 
 "The fact is, I've something beastly to tell 
 you." 
 
 John laughed easily. 
 
 "What's the row? Have you flunked some 
 more examinations, or has the Dean been calling 
 you down ? " 
 
 " It's not that. It is from home." 
 
 John looked a trifle anxious.
 
 2T4 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 "Anything wrong? I had a letter from 
 Ursula, just now, and she saw your mother, 
 only Monday." 
 
 Kingsley bit his lip irresolutely. 
 
 "It's not at my home; it's yours. I've just 
 had a telegram from Mac Holden, saying your 
 father is ill, nothing dangerous; but he thinks 
 you would better run down to see how he is." 
 
 John sat up straight. His face was white to 
 the roots of his hair, and a bluish ring outlined 
 his mouth ; but he spoke steadily. 
 
 " Have you the telegram here ? " 
 
 Kingsley handed it to him in silence. In 
 silence he read it, once, twice, three times. Then 
 he looked at his watch. 
 
 "I can just catch the two-thirty train," he 
 said briefly. " Tell Dorrien, please. And I'm 
 obliged to you for coming over, you know." 
 
 That was all. The next he realized, he was 
 counting the glimpses of the blue Sound, which 
 marked his endless progress towards home. 
 Ursula met him on the threshold, and from her 
 eyes he read that his worst fear was not fulfilled. 
 
 " Aunt Ursula and the nurse are with him," 
 she said, as she softly closed the door. " I have 
 been watching for you to come. I thought you 
 would be on this train." 
 
 " What is it ? " he asked.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 275 
 
 She slid her arm around his shoulders, until it 
 rested across the back of his neck, and, for some 
 reason, John made no effort to withdraw himself 
 from her girlish caress. 
 
 " The real danger is over, Jackie. I am tell- 
 ing you the honest truth. He had an ill turn in 
 his office, this morning. They telephoned to 
 Aunt Ursula, and she telephoned to Dr. Holden. 
 I went with her, and we were all there at about 
 the same minute. Dr. Holden says it came near 
 being apoplexy ; but he just escaped it. They 
 brought him home at noon, and then Dr. Holden 
 sent for you. Aunt Ursula misses you so much 
 that we all thought you'd better run down for a 
 day or two." 
 
 " And you say that the danger is over ? " 
 
 "Yes, anyway for the present. Dr. Holden 
 says he will come out all right." 
 
 " Can I go to him ? " 
 
 " Not just yet. He is quiet, and they hope he 
 will drop to sleep. Aunt Ursula asked me to 
 tell you that she will come down as soon as she 
 can. But, oh, Jackie ! " 
 
 For the first time since he had come into the 
 house, John looked squarely at his cousin. In 
 the early dusk, her face showed white and wan, 
 and her dark eyes seemed to glitter out at him 
 from darker shadows.
 
 276 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 " Ursula ! What is it ? " he asked again, with 
 recurrent fear. " You look " 
 
 She interrupted him hastily. 
 
 " As if I were tired ? I am, Jackie ; but it is 
 so good to see you that I don't mind. It has 
 been a hard day for us all, you know." 
 
 "But if my father is better?" he said, with 
 boyish optimism. 
 
 " Yes ; but one doesn't get over such a fright 
 in an hour." 
 
 " And how did mother stand it ? " 
 
 " Wonderfully. She was quiet and steady. 
 She hasn't cried a tear ; but it has taken all her 
 courage to go through it." 
 
 " Was he all right, this morning ? " John 
 asked, as he gently let her arm drop, while he 
 took off his overcoat. 
 
 " As well as he has been, for ever so long. 
 You know we worried about him in the spring. 
 This has been coming on for a good while, we 
 think now ; and nobody and we didn't realize 
 how serious it was." She straightened her lips 
 into a hard, firm line. Then she said bravely, 
 " Come, Jack, there's a fire in the library, and I 
 know you are tired and want to be made 
 comfy." And she held out her hand to him in- 
 vitingly. 
 
 He took her hand and slipped it through his
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 277 
 
 arm, wondering a little, as he did so, that her 
 fingers were so cold. 
 
 In the library, the lights were burning cozily 
 and a bright fire glowed in the grate. Every- 
 thing looked strangely natural : the vase of roses 
 that always stood on the mantel, the low step- 
 ladder before the long lines of books, and his 
 father's easy chair drawn up beside the reading- 
 lamp on the table. John's face brightened, as he 
 saw all the well-remembered details of the luxu- 
 rious room. He had not thought of being 
 home-sick ; nevertheless, home was an infinitely 
 more attractive place than his rather cramped 
 quarters in Pierson. He dropped down into 
 his accustomed seat by the fire and, from 
 sheer force of habit, he bent forward to pick 
 up the poker. Then he glanced up at his 
 cousin. 
 
 " Oh, but iV good to be here again ! Sit 
 down, Ursula, and let's pretend that I've never 
 been away." 
 
 Already, under the influence of her good news 
 from his father, he was reacting from the strain 
 of the past three hours. She shrank from the 
 unconscious content in his tone; nevertheless, 
 she came forward to his side. 
 
 "It has been terribly lonely without you, 
 Jackie. We all have missed you. Sometimes I
 
 278 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 think that, for all he is so silent, Uncle Henry 
 has missed you most of us all." 
 
 " But you say he has been fairly well, till this 
 morning ? " 
 
 "Ye-es." The word lengthened doubtfully. 
 " At least, he has seemed so." 
 
 " I wonder what brought this on." John 
 spoke thoughtfully. 
 
 Nervously Ursula's hands closed on the arms 
 of her chair. As yet her task was not all done. 
 In some respects, the hardest of it all was yet 
 before her. Nevertheless, some one must do it, 
 and, in pity for her aunt, Ursula had offered to 
 be that some one. 
 
 "They think it was partly from business 
 worry," she answered slowly. 
 
 " Yes," John said, with his eyes fixed on the 
 fire. " I thought he was worrying about things, 
 away back last spring. You know I told you 
 that something was wrong, when he wouldn't 
 let mother go to Europe." 
 
 " I wonder if she isn't glad now that she gave 
 it up," Ursula said impetuously. 
 
 "Because they had such good times, last sum- 
 mer? I should think she would be. I never 
 saw them hang together more. As a rule, they 
 went their own ways. Do you suppose she knew 
 about this ? "
 
 URSULAS FRESHMAN 279 
 
 " Oh, no," Ursula answered hastily. Then she 
 checked herself. " Knew about what ? " 
 
 " That he was worrying ? " 
 
 " No ; not to think much about it. At least, 
 that's what I should judge from what she said to 
 me, to-day." 
 
 Again John bent forward, this time to prod 
 the fire. 
 
 "Strange what should have brought this on, 
 to-day." 
 
 There was no answer, and he looked up at 
 Ursula, at first inquiringly, then with dawning 
 suspicion. 
 
 "Was there any especial thing, to-day, that 
 caused it ? " he asked sharply. 
 
 For a moment, her courage failed her. 
 
 " Yes that is things are always up and down 
 in Wall Street, you know and " 
 
 " And ? " The word was plainly interrogative. 
 
 " And I suppose to-day was one of the most 
 uneven days," she concluded lamely. 
 
 With steady deliberation, John put the poker 
 back into its stand ; then he rose and faced 
 Ursula. 
 
 " Something is wrong," he said briefly ; " and 
 you are keeping something back from me. What 
 is it?" 
 
 She bit her lip. Before she could rally and
 
 280 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 meet his question, he had followed it up with 
 another. 
 
 " Ursula, has my father been losing money ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Is it his own, or somebody else's ? " he asked 
 in the same steady, determined manner. 
 
 Her eyes flashed indignantly. 
 
 "How dare you ask such a question of your 
 own father ? " she demanded. 
 
 He drew a long breath of relief. 
 
 " Because I wanted to know the very worst. 
 I can stand anything now ; but don't, in mercy's 
 name, keep anything back." For the moment, 
 it was a man who was speaking. " Has he lost 
 much?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " How much ? " 
 
 Again she faltered. 
 
 " How much ? " he repeated. " There is no 
 kindness in making me drag it out of you, a 
 word at a time. How much has he lost ? " 
 
 "Everything." Suddenly she rose and stood 
 beside him. "Jackie, it couldn't be much worse. 
 It has been coming for a year. Things were 
 running backwards, and he couldn't seem to find 
 what was making all the trouble. Still, he 
 thought he could go through it, without its doing 
 any lasting harm ; but, to-day, he missed one of
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 281 
 
 the clerks, Mr. Mitchell, and when they came to 
 look at his books, they found out where all the 
 trouble came from. Jack, that man has been 
 stealing, for more than a year ; his going now is 
 the end of everything." 
 
 " Who found it out ? " 
 
 " Uncle Henry. He took the books and called 
 one of the other clerks, and went into the inside 
 office. When the clerk called, they found Uncle 
 Henry lying with his head on the table, and they 
 sent for us." 
 
 "And it takes it all?" The boy spoke 
 drearily. 
 
 " Yes, even the house. Jack, i wish I could 
 comfort you. It wouldn't be so hard for me. I 
 am used to scrimping ; but I can't think of you 
 as being poor." 
 
 He flinched at the word. 
 
 "Don't call it that, Ursula. There must be 
 something." 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 " Not much. Jackie, it kills me to tell you 
 this ; but Aunt Ursula couldn't, and so I had to. 
 Can't you see how sorry I am for you and for all 
 the change it will make in your plans?" 
 
 Her head had been resting against his shoul- 
 der ; but now he turned to face her. 
 
 " Ursula," he said slowly ; " don't worry about
 
 282 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 me. I can stand it, for I am young enough to 
 start all over again. It won't hurt me; but 
 my poor father ! "
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 283 
 
 CHAPTEK TWENTY-ONE 
 
 " JUDAS PRIEST! What are you doing?" 
 
 */ Kingsley demanded, as he came into 
 John's room in Pierson, a week later. 
 
 John looked down at him from the step-ladder 
 where he was standing to take down the Hermes. 
 
 " Packing," he answered briefly. 
 
 " Looks to me a good deal more as if you were 
 unpacking, as far as your wall is concerned. 
 Are you preparing to move ? " 
 
 " That's just what I'm doing." 
 
 Kingsley 's face expressed commiseration. 
 
 " What's the matter ? Have you and Dorrien 
 had a row ? " 
 
 " Of course not. Nobody could row with old 
 Dorrien. He's a good fellow." 
 
 " Then what's the cause of this 'ruction ? " 
 
 With the Hermes clasped in the hollow of his 
 right arm, John deliberately came down from 
 the ladder. 
 
 " I'm going up into Whalley Place," he said, 
 when he was once more on the ground. 
 
 Kingsley dropped down on the couch and
 
 284 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 stared at his friend in utter stupefac- 
 tion. 
 
 " You ! " he ejaculated. 
 
 "Yes. Why not?" 
 
 "That's where the long-haired grinds fatten 
 and thrive. If you go there, you'll turn into an- 
 other just like them. If you can't study enough 
 here in Pierson, then go decently up town, not 
 into the suburbs of Westville. What's the 
 trouble? Is there too much larking around 
 here, and does it interfere with your scholastic 
 pursuits ? " 
 
 " No ; I could study at Poli's, if it were neces- 
 sary. But I can't afford this room." 
 
 " How long since ? " Kingsley asked jocosely. 
 
 John looked at him in surprise. 
 
 " Hasn't your mother written you ? " 
 
 "Written me nothing. Is something wrong 
 at your house ? " 
 
 " My father has failed. That was what made 
 him ill," John explained concisely. 
 
 " Pettijack ! An up and down failure ? " 
 
 "As bad as it can be. The house must go. 
 I'm to finish out my term here, the year, if 
 nothing comes up to give me a chance in busi- 
 ness ; but I can't keep the room." 
 
 " What about Dorrien ? " 
 
 " The best fellow living. He will find some-
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 285 
 
 body else, Bertie Drummond, probabty, and let 
 me out now." 
 
 " He is good. Now come and bunk in with 
 me for a while," Kingsley suggested. 
 
 John shook his head. 
 
 " Two not allowed in single rooms. Besides, I 
 should disgrace you. I'm going in for self-help, 
 and all that sort of thing. If I stay on for the 
 year, I've got it all to do." 
 
 " As how ? " 
 
 John's teeth shut hard together. 
 
 " Beggars mustn't be choosers. I'm going to 
 wait on table, up in Wall Street." 
 
 " Oh, say now ! " Kingsley protested. " That's 
 awful ! Isn't there anything else ? " 
 
 "Not just now. Later, I am going to try for 
 some tutoring ; but it is too soon to get much of 
 that." 
 
 " In what ? " 
 
 " Greek, mostly. You know I'm doing sopho- 
 more work in that." 
 
 Kingsley clasped his hands piously. 
 
 " Glory be ! I flunked Greek, last June, and I 
 haven't done a thing but wonder where I'd get a 
 tutor that could understand my peculiar tempera- 
 ment. Pettijack, if you love me, begin work on 
 me, to-morrow." 
 
 John looked at him suspiciously.
 
 286 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 " Sure you aren't doing it to help me out ? " 
 he demanded. 
 
 " Ask the Dean. He won't lie, even for sweet 
 charity's sake. Oh-h-h ! " Kingsley gave a sigh 
 of relief. " It's a good day's work I have done, 
 this morning. How is your father ? " 
 
 " Better. Dr. Holden has done wonders for 
 him, and he has come up faster than we had any 
 idea he could." 
 
 " What about Ursula ? " 
 
 John had mounted the step-ladder again, and 
 was just reaching up to unhook a picture. At 
 the question, he turned fully around. 
 
 " Rex," he said slowly ; " that cousin of mine 
 is heroic." 
 
 But Ursula, playing cribbage with her uncle 
 in the library, would have been the first one to 
 deny the truth of the word. To her mind, there 
 had been no chance for heroism in the quiet ac- 
 ceptance of unavoidable and unexpected condi- 
 tions, especially when those conditions were 
 affecting others rather than herself. For the 
 sake of her aunt and uncle, she could have cried 
 aloud with pity. It was no easy thing for them, 
 after years of growing prosperity when money 
 had been forthcoming for their fast-increasing 
 wishes, to face a future which would be barren 
 of luxury, almost destitute of comforts. As
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 287 
 
 Nathalie had said, months before, poverty was far 
 harder for the rich than for the poor. The need- 
 ful scrimping which maddens the one, becomes 
 second nature to the other, and one rarely rebels 
 at the facts of his second nature. Mrs. Thain 
 would have considered as opulent the annual 
 pittance at which Mrs. Myers was already 
 shuddering. Nevertheless, the house must go, 
 and with it the greater part of the furniture. It 
 would help to pay the many debts, and, more- 
 over, it would be manifestly unsuitable in the 
 simpler home which they were soon to 
 find. 
 
 Already that home had been a source of much 
 discussion, a discussion in which Mr. Myers had 
 insisted upon taking his own part. He had 
 rallied with surprising swiftness from this first 
 illness of his life, and he faced the future bravely, 
 borne up by the knowledge that the failure had 
 been none of his own making, and by the un- 
 swerving loyalty of his wife. 
 
 "Henry," she had said quietly, as she bent 
 over him, the morning after the crisis had come ; 
 " I am not worrying in the least. As long as 
 you are coming out of this so well, the rest 
 doesn't court for much. We have had our good 
 times and made the very most of them. We 
 aren't old people yet, by any means, and perhaps
 
 288 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 it may not hurt us a bit to try a little simpler 
 way of living." 
 
 " But " he said slowly. 
 
 She interrupted him. 
 
 " There aren't any buts. I have been spoiled 
 long enough ; it is time I took a little of the 
 care. Hurry to grow strong, dear, and then 
 we'll have great times, planning things. It will 
 be like a second honeymoon." 
 
 She kept up that attitude before the faces of 
 her husband and son. Once and once only 
 Ursula, coming suddenly into her aunt's room, 
 found Mrs. Myers sobbing as if her heart would 
 break ; but, as a rule, such hours came only when 
 the house was quiet for the night. By day, she 
 faced the future dauntlessly, and sought, by an 
 increasing daintiness, to draw attention from the 
 heavy shadows that lay about her eyes. 
 
 Of John's going back to Yale, there had been 
 no question. His strong opposition to the idea 
 had been overruled, and it was decided that, at 
 least for the present, he should keep on with his 
 college work. He had been sent away, protest- 
 ing to the last; but it was only Ursula who 
 knew of the boyish determination which was to 
 lead to his talk with Kingsley. She had listened 
 to him in silence, until he had ended the explana- 
 tion of his plan.
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 289 
 
 " Jackie," she said then ; " I am proud of you. 
 I knew you had it all in you ; but I didn't think 
 it would come out so sooii. It is going to be a 
 horrid thing to do ; but it won't hurt you in the 
 end. Grinding never does. It only shows you 
 what you amount to, yourself, and who your real 
 friends are. But I do wish I could be there to 
 talk things over with you and coddle you up now 
 and then. You know you would like to have me." 
 
 John was never demonstrative ; few boys were 
 less so. Now, however, he bent over Ursula's 
 chair and touched her cheek with his own. 
 Then, as if ashamed of even this betrayal of 
 feeling, he straightened up abruptly. 
 
 " Doesn't it prove it, that you are the only 
 person I have told about this thing ? " he asked. 
 Then he glanced up, as his mother appeared in 
 the doorway. 
 
 "Come into the library, children," she said. 
 "We must talk things over, to-night; and, if 
 John goes, in the morning, we want to see as 
 much of him as we can now." 
 
 " Yes, we'll come." And John went forward 
 and drew her hand through his arm. " You're a 
 good deal of a mother," he said approvingly. 
 
 For an instant, her voice broke. 
 
 " Oh, John, I wish I were ! I wish I always 
 had been ! But, after a fashion, I have tried."
 
 290 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 In the library, Ursula settled herself comfort- 
 ably at her uncle's feet, and awaited the begin- 
 ning of the serious talk which she felt sure was 
 bound to follow. As for her own part in it, her 
 mind had been made up, a week before. 
 
 " We have been planning where to go, John," 
 Mrs. Myers said, when she and her son were 
 seated on the sofa in the corner of the room. 
 " We mean to go out of the house before Christ- 
 mas ; earlier than that, if any one wants to take 
 it off our hands. That gives us about six weeks, 
 and there is a great deal to be done." 
 
 " And you are sending me off, where I can't 
 help," he rebuked her. 
 
 " Never mind that now. We decided that it 
 was best, and we'd better not discuss it again. 
 But, about the new home ; shall it be home, or 
 boarding ? " 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 " Shall we take a little apartment and keep a 
 few of the old home things ; or shall we decide 
 to let everything go, and board ? If we board, 
 we can do it more comfortably, perhaps; but 
 there will be no home about it. Which do you 
 prefer ? " 
 
 "I'm not the one to decide," he answered. 
 
 " Yes. At least, you ought to be consulted. 
 It will be your home, too."
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 291 
 
 " It will be easier for you, if we board," he 
 said regretfully. 
 
 " And lonelier," she answered quickly. 
 
 " Could we could you keep house ? " 
 
 " Yes, simply and with one maid. But, John, 
 it wouldn't be like any living you have ever 
 known. The rooms would be tucked-up, and the 
 maid wouldn't be like the trained servants we 
 have always had. It is only fair to tell you 
 this." 
 
 "I know; but it would be home," he said 
 bluntly. " What does father say ? " 
 
 " He feels as you do. Still, I want you to see 
 all sides of the matter. When you think of 
 housekeeping, you mustn't expect it to be like 
 the way we have done things, nor like the way 
 the Barretts live. We should have to work hard 
 and live simply and count the cost of things 
 down to the last cent." 
 
 He faced her proudly. 
 
 " Who cares ? As long as we have each other 
 and Ursula, the rest doesn't count." 
 
 "But we aren't going to have Ursula much 
 longer, John." 
 
 "All the year." 
 
 " Not now." 
 
 " Why not ? " 
 
 Ursula, meanwhile, had been talking with her
 
 292 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 uncle. Now, as she caught her name, she lis- 
 tened for the next words. 
 
 " "Why not ? " John repeated. 
 
 She turned around and faced the sofa. 
 
 Not what, Jackie ? " 
 
 "Why aren't you going to stay out your 
 year ? " 
 
 "But I am." 
 
 " Mother says you aren't." 
 
 " Then ' mother ' has made a mistake," she an- 
 swered quietly. 
 
 " Ursula dear," Mrs. Myers interposed ; " it is 
 very hard to tell you this ; but Mr. Heath is go- 
 ing to start for Omaha, next week, and I am 
 going to send you home in his care." 
 
 " I should like to know the reason," she said, 
 still quietly. 
 
 "Because we can't make it pleasant for you 
 any longer; because of this change of things, 
 dear." 
 
 "All the more reason I should stay. You 
 borrowed me for a year, you know. It hurts me 
 to be sent home, before the year is over." 
 
 " Don't make it any harder for me, child," her 
 aunt begged her. " It breaks my heart to give 
 you up." 
 
 Ursula rose to her feet. Her hand rested on 
 her uncle's shoulder, and through his wadded
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 293 
 
 housecoat, he could feel the hand shake a little ; 
 but the voice was quite steady and even. 
 
 "I am glad to hear you say that, Aunt 
 Ursula," she said gently ; " because I am going 
 to stay here, this winter. No. Listen ! For 
 more than a year, you have been doing every- 
 thing for me ; and I haven't always been half 
 grateful enough about it, either. Now I have a 
 chance to do a little something for you. In all 
 this breaking up and moving, I know I can help 
 you. I've been trained to work ; I've been 
 taught to be poor, and not to mind the scrimp- 
 ing. It is a great deal easier for me than it is 
 going to be for you. I'm young, and strong as I 
 can be. It is good for me to work, and they 
 don't need me at home. I'm going to stay with 
 you, this winter, and help in the new housekeep- 
 ing. I am as good as any maid you can get, I 
 know ; and you know you can't get along with- 
 out me." 
 
 It seemed to John that he held his breath for 
 an apparently endless interval, while he waited 
 for his mother's reply. It came at last, how- 
 ever. 
 
 "No, Ursula, I'm afraid I can't."
 
 294 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO 
 
 " /^* IFF, I have experienced religion." 
 
 V-T Mr. Barrett looked up from an inky 
 score. 
 
 "St. Swithin's rainbow! You don't mean 
 it?" 
 
 "I do." 
 
 " Do you feel ill anywhere ? " he asked anx- 
 iously. 
 
 "No; only the painful consciousness of con- 
 science. It will pass off." 
 
 " What have you done, Babe ? " 
 
 " Guess ! " she said tragically. 
 
 "Don't sit on my maestoso. Those heavy 
 chords take any amount of ink, and they will 
 ruin your back breadths. What is it ? " 
 
 " I have invited a Thanksgiving dinner party." 
 
 " Don't you always ? " 
 
 " Yes ; but not of this ilk. I have been out in 
 the highways and hedges, and they're all com- 
 ing." 
 
 " So much the better." 
 
 " Yes ; but they won't jibe."
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 295 
 
 " Meaning mock ? " 
 
 " No ; hitch together. Don't criticize my lan- 
 guage, in the face of such a combination." 
 
 Her husband laughed, while he meditatively 
 inked the fingers of her hand, as it lay on the 
 table beside him. 
 
 "Who is it, Babe?" 
 
 " Well, I'll tell you. It's Kex." 
 
 " Naturally. Who else ? " 
 
 Mrs. Barrett counted rapidly. 
 
 " And Paul and Lyn, and Ted and Billy, and 
 the Ainslees, and Mac, and the Arterburns, of 
 course." 
 
 " Well, that's all right. They fit admirably." 
 
 " Yes ; but you haven't heard the worst. Now 
 brace yourself for a shock. I've asked the whole 
 platoon of Myerses." 
 
 Mr. Barrett's jaw dropped. 
 
 "Babe!" 
 
 " Yes, the whole b'ilin' of them," she reiterated 
 grimly. 
 
 "Mrs. Myers?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "And Mr. Myers?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " But Teddy is coming." 
 
 " Let her come ! " Mrs. Barrett said reck- 
 lessly.
 
 296 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 "But won't it be rather trying for them 
 both?" 
 
 Mrs. Barrett looked at her husband rebuk- 
 ingly. 
 
 "Now, Giff, let bygones be bygones. You 
 haven't much to say, for your own past is rather 
 murky. Mr. Myers did appear, unbidden and on 
 all fours, at Teddy's dinner party ; but I know 
 somebody else who ran into a lone woman and 
 knocked her off her bicycle, and then ended by 
 stealing her skull." 
 
 "The only time I ever made you lose your 
 head," he commented gravely. " But about the 
 Myers faction." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " "What made you ask them ? " 
 
 " Because they are having a hard time of it, 
 and making the best of bad things most heroic- 
 ally ; because this is the first Thanksgiving since 
 the downfall, and it will be dreary enough at 
 best ; because benevolence leads to sanctification, 
 and I propose to get sanctified, some way or 
 other. Giff, if you don't like it, you can eat at 
 second table." 
 
 "Oh, I like it," he returned tranquilly. "I 
 was only a little surprised because I thought 
 that, on one or two occasions, I had heard you 
 mention that you "
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 291 
 
 " Detested Mrs. Myers," his wife supplemented 
 coolly. "Well, I do. At least, I did. From 
 all I hear now, though, I think I rather admire 
 the woman. She may not be agreeable ; but she 
 is gritty enough to make up, and that little 
 Ursula is superb." 
 
 "It was a bad break-up. I wonder if there 
 were any fragments left," Mr. Barrett said re- 
 flectively. 
 
 " Not many. He had been running too close 
 to the wind, and that clerk of his capsized him." 
 
 " What is he going to do ? " 
 
 "Nothing for a month, Mac says. Then he 
 will go hunting for a position. Awful, at his 
 age ! " 
 
 Mr. Barrett impaled a scrap of music paper on 
 the end of his pen, and twirled it thoughtfully in 
 the ink. 
 
 " Billy Farrington's manager is going to take 
 an invalid wife to Europe," he observed. 
 
 " Giff ! The very thing ! " 
 
 " Of course, it may not Where are you 
 
 going?" 
 
 " To write to Billy." And the door shut be- 
 hind her, leaving Mr. Barrett to make a futile 
 effort to sort out his themes and his episodes 
 once more. 
 
 Three days later, one of the rooms in Yander-
 
 298 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 bilt was filled to overflowing, and Kingsley per- 
 vaded all things, with a jovial smile on his face 
 and a platter of cold chicken in his hands. 
 
 " Everything is so cramming full that I thought 
 it would be much better to have lunch here," he 
 said, as he settled his mother in the easiest chair 
 the room afforded, and then helped Ursula to 
 spring up on the high window seat. " It isn't a 
 great spread you'll get ; but it will carry you as 
 far as the field, and your enthusiasm will do the 
 rest." 
 
 " Who will win, Rex ? " Nathalie asked from 
 the other window, where she was ensconced with 
 John beside her and a half-dozen sophomores at 
 her feet. 
 
 " The idea of asking, when you are a guest of 
 the victorious side ! " 
 
 " It isn't victorious yet." 
 
 " It's going to be, though. Whose flowers are 
 you wearing ? " 
 
 She blushed a little, as she buried her nose in 
 the great bunch of violets she wore. 
 
 "Mac's, of course. You didn't send me 
 any." 
 
 " No," Kingsley answered calmly. " A fellow 
 doesn't waste flowers on an engaged cousin. I 
 sent mine to Ursula." 
 
 She nodded up at him.
 
 URSULAS FEE SUM AN 299 
 
 " And they are beauties, too. "What is it, 
 Nathalie?" " 
 
 " That is the room over beyond the arch " 
 
 " The third window on the ground floor, that 
 Mac had in his sophomore year." Kingsley 
 completed her sentence for her. "Never mind 
 now, Nathalie. Mac isn't here, and this is Kex's 
 party." 
 
 "Where is your room now, Jack?" Ursula 
 asked. 
 
 " A mile or so over the top of Dwight Hall," 
 he answered. 
 
 " That sounds as if it were among the angels ; 
 but it's only among the ranks of the grinds," 
 Kingsley commented. " It is a horrid region ; 
 but he has a mighty pretty room up there. 
 We're going to drop in on him for tea, after the 
 game." 
 
 In her enthusiasm, Ursula nearly tumbled off 
 the window seat. 
 
 " Oh, Jackie, I'm so glad ! You didn't tell us." 
 
 " Steady ! " Kingsley cautioned her, as he 
 deftly caught her fork and roll with the same hand. 
 
 "Never mind. But Aunt Ursula will be so 
 glad to know just how you are settled and all 
 that. Why didn't you tell us ? " 
 
 " It's Rex's planning, to-day," John said ; but 
 Kingsley interrupted him.
 
 300 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 " Don't tell them that I wanted to get out of hav- 
 ing them come back here. Now, mater, if you're 
 refreshed enough to renew your duties, you 
 might summon your charges, and we'll start for 
 the field." 
 
 By dint of many pennies and much persuasion, 
 Kingsley had succeeded in getting a carriage, 
 and the driver was already waiting for them in 
 front of the Yanderbilt Arch. Five minutes 
 later, they were picking their way along the 
 street which was packed with dozens of carriages, 
 with scores of swarming street cars and with 
 hundreds of pedestrians, a mighty stream of hu- 
 manity all flowing westward to empty into the 
 grand stands on Yale Field. Blue bunting arched 
 the streets and dangled from the windows, 
 crimson and blue flags and favors were on all 
 sides and pretty girls were everywhere. 
 
 Kingsley surveyed the two faces before him, 
 the blond and the brown ; then he nodded ap- 
 provingly at his mother. 
 
 "Mighty good scheme, your coming up, 
 mater ! " he observed. " It isn't often a freshman 
 like Pettijack has a chance to go to a game in 
 such company." 
 
 From his seat on the box, John glanced down 
 over his shoulder. 
 
 " That's where you're right, Rex," he returned
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 301 
 
 quickly. "Mrs. Barrett is a guest worth the 
 having." 
 
 "Thank you for the compliment, Jack," she 
 answered, with sudden gravity. "We chaper- 
 ons appreciate such things now and then." And, 
 as she left the carriage, it was she, not Nathalie, 
 who walked away at John's side. 
 
 " I believe I am perfectly content," Ursula re- 
 marked blissfully, two hours later. 
 
 The game had been played out, a close fight 
 to the finish, and the blue was triumphant, with 
 a record of neither broken bones nor tricky 
 plays. At its close, the red flags had vanished 
 from sight, as if by magic, and the field had 
 turned to a mass of blue bunting, while the 
 crowd cheered itself hoarse, and the band, far 
 away up at the head of the field, pounded out 
 Bright College Years as if its staid leader had 
 gone mad with delight. Then the move came 
 again, and slowly the vast stream of humanity 
 began flowing back to the city where it broke 
 into different courses and melted away for 
 another year. 
 
 Up in one of the side streets, half a mile from 
 the campus, the carriage drew up at a plain little 
 brick house, and John sprang down to open the 
 door. The hallway was not especially inviting, 
 and the stairs were narrow and not too well
 
 302 URSULAS FRESHMAN 
 
 lighted. At the top, John threw open another 
 door, and stood aside to let his guests pass into 
 the room. 
 
 " Here I am," he said briefly. 
 
 The room was small, and its two windows 
 looked out over a cheery array of back yards. 
 The carpet was shabby and the paper on the 
 walls bore the marks of many an occupant in the 
 past. Nevertheless, a chafing dish stood ready 
 on the battered table, and the setting sun shone 
 across the room to rest upon the Hermes and, 
 below it, the narrow frame holding the trio of 
 home pictures, Ursula, Mr. Myers and, between, 
 the dainty little mother smiling down at them, 
 in all the glory of a Paris frock. 
 
 " Keally, he is making no end of a success as a 
 tutor," Kingsley explained to his mother, while 
 they waited for the oysters to cook. " His getting 
 me through my examination was a good adver- 
 tisement for him. The fellows knew that, after 
 that, he could tackle anything ; and now he is 
 getting all he can do." 
 
 " Are you making your fortune, Jack ? " Mrs. 
 Barrett asked, from the couch where she was 
 spreading bread and butter for the feast. 
 
 " Endlessly. Look at my necktie," he advised 
 her gravely. " Keally, though, I shall give up 
 the table, after the holidays, and give all my
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN 303 
 
 time to tutoring. It's not such a grind, either ; 
 and I rather like the fun of laying down the law 
 to the sophomores, once in a while." 
 
 Ursula looked up abruptly. 
 
 " I'm going to tell tales," she announced. 
 "Mrs. Barrett, that boy sent home his last 
 month's allowance, and told his father he thought 
 he wouldn't need to have any more sent to him." 
 
 Nathalie rose, waving her brimming teacup. 
 
 " Here's to Pettijack Myers ! " she proclaimed. 
 
 But it was Kingsley who added, 
 
 " Yes, and here's to Pettijack's cousin ! " 
 
 THE END
 
 ANNA CHAPIN RAY'S 
 
 "TEDDY" STORIES 
 
 TEDDY: HER BOOK 
 
 A Story of Sweet Sixteen 
 
 Illustrated by Vesper L. George. I2mo. $1.50 
 
 The girls of sweet sixteen owe Anna Chapin Ray a debt of gratitude. No other writer, 
 of recent years at least, has given such complete expression to the comprehensiveness of 
 the complex character of the modern girl of that age. The story is charmingly told and. 
 thoroughly wholesome. Denver Times. 
 
 PHEBE: HER PROFESSION 
 
 A Sequel to "Teddy: Her Book" 
 
 Illustrated by Frank T. Merrill. I2mo. $1.50 
 
 Miss Ray's work draws instant comparison with the best of Miss Alcott's: first, because 
 she has the same genuine sympathy with boy and girl life ; secondly, because she creates 
 real characters, individual and natural, like the young people one knows, actually work- 
 ing out the same kind of problems ; and, finally, because her style of writing is equally 
 unaffected and straightforward. She builds upon clearly thought-out convictions, and the 
 influence of the book will be wholly for good, tending toward a sane, wholesome view of 
 life generally. There is a deal of fun in it too. Christian Register, Boston. 
 
 TEDDY: HER DAUGHTER 
 
 A Sequel to " Teddy: Her Book," and " Phebe: Her Profession " 
 
 Illustrated by J. B. Graff. i2mo. $1.20 net 
 
 Introduces a new generation of girls and boys, all well bred and gifted with good manners, 
 takes them through much fun and such adventures as one may find on a small sandy 
 island, and gives the girl a page or two of saving common sense about her duties to boys 
 and her obligation to be true and womanly. New York Times Saturday Review. 
 
 NATHALIE'S CHUM 
 
 Illustrated by Ellen Bernard Thompson. I2mo. $1.20 net 
 
 A new volume by the author of " Teddy : Her Book," is pronounced by those who have 
 read it the most delightful she has yet written. "Teddy," " Babe," "Dr. McAlister," 
 and several other favorite characters in the previous books reappear, together with an 
 orphan family of New York. 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, 6? COMPANY 
 
 Publishers . 254 WASHINGTON ST., BOSTON, MASS.
 
 HELEN LEAH REED'S 
 
 "BREND A" BOOKS 
 
 BRENDA, HER SCHOOL AND HER CLUB 
 
 Illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith. i2mo. $1.50. 
 
 The Boston Herald says : " Miss Reed's girls have all the impulses and likes of 
 real girls as their characters are developing, and her record of their thoughts and 
 actions reads like a chapter snatched from the page of life. It is bright, genial, 
 merry, wholesome, and full of good characterizations." 
 
 BRENDA'S SUMMER AT ROCKLEY 
 
 Illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith. i2mo. $1.20 net. 
 
 A charming picture of vacation life along the famous North Shore of Massachu- 
 setts. 
 
 The Outlook says : " The author is one of the best equipped of our writers for. 
 girls of larger growth. Her stories are strong, intelligent, and wholesome." 
 
 BRENDA'S COUSIN AT RADCLIFFE 
 
 Illustrated by Alice Barber Stephens. I2mo. $1.20 net. 
 
 A remarkably real and fascinating story of a college girl's career, excelling in 
 interest Miss Reed's first "Brenda" book. The Providence News says of it: 
 " No better college story has been written." The author is a graduate of Radcliffe 
 College which she describes. 
 
 BRENDA'S BARGAIN 
 
 Illustrated. I2mo. $1.20 net. 
 
 The fourth of the " Brenda " books by Helen Leah Reed, which will 
 bring this popular series to a close. It introduces a group of younger 
 girls, pupils in the domestic science school conducted by Brenda's cousin 
 and her former teacher, Miss South. The story also deals with social 
 settlement work. 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, & COMPANY, Publishers 
 254 WASHINGTON ST., BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
 
 Myra Sawyer Hamlirfs Stories 
 
 NAN AT CAMP CHICOPEE ; or, Nan's Summer 
 with the Boys 
 
 Illustrated by Jessie McDermott. i6mo. $1.25. 
 
 The story is one of free, outdoor life, characterized by a deal of fine descriptive writing 
 and many bits of local color that invest the whole book with an atmosphere which is 
 actually fragrant. Bangor Commercial. 
 
 NAN IN THE CITY ; or, Nan's Winter with the 
 
 Girls 
 
 Illustrated by L. J. Bridgman. i6mo. $1.25. 
 
 A bright story in which children and animals play an equal part. The Outlook. 
 
 She is a womanly girl, and we have met her like outside of story-books. A wonderfully 
 healthy, thoroughly womanly maiden, standing at the point in life where childhood and 
 womanhood meet, one follows with interest the account of her first winter at school in a 
 great city, where she made new friends and found some old ones. Chicago Advance. 
 
 NAN'S CHICOPEE CHILDREN 
 
 Illustrated by L. J. Bridgman. i6mo. $1.25. 
 
 Myra Sawyer Hamlin's stories are full of outdoor life, redolent of the woods, the fields, 
 and the mountain lakes, and her characters are very natural young folk. Cambridge 
 Tribune. 
 
 Full of happiness and helpfulness, with experiences in doors and out that will interest all 
 young people. Evening Standard, New Bedford. 
 
 CATHARINE'S PROXY. A Story of Schoolgirl 
 Life 
 
 Illustrated by Florence E. Plaisted. I2mo. $1.20 net. 
 
 An entertaining story of a very modern young American girl of wealth 
 who fails to appreciate the advantages of an expensive education, and at 
 the suggestion of her father gives her educational advantage to another 
 girl, who for a year becomes her proxy. 
 
 The girl characters are from fifteen to seventeen years of age, the boys are 
 preparing for college, and all are instilled with the spirit of modern life 
 in our best schools. 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, & COMPANY 
 
 Publishers, 254. WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, MASS.
 
 New Illustrated Editions of 
 Miss Alcott's Famous Stories 
 
 LITTLE MEN : Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys 
 
 By LOUISA M. ALCOTT. With fifteen full-page illustrations by Reginald 
 B. Birch. Crown 8vo. Decorated cloth. $2.00. 
 
 " Little Men " has never been given to an admiring public in any form so charming as 
 this one. All that was needed to make the tale quite irresistible was such illustrations as 
 are here supplied, fifteen full-page ones instinct with life and movement and charm. 
 Boston Budget. 
 
 LITTLE WOMEN : or Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy 
 
 By LOUISA M. ALCOTT. With 15 full-page illustrations by Alice Barber 
 Stephens. Crown 8vo. Decorated cloth. $2.00. 
 
 women of the Civil War period, Alice Barber Stephens is in her element, and her illustra- 
 tions are all that can be desired." 
 
 AN OLD-FASHIONED GIRL 
 
 By LOUISA M. ALCOTT. With 12 full-page pictures by Jessie Willcox 
 Smith. Crown 8vo. Decorated cloth. $2.00. 
 
 Of the third book in illustrated edition of the " Little Women " Series, the Saturday 
 Evening Gazette, Boston, says : " No better portraits of Polly and Tom could be imagined 
 than those which appear in these pages. . . . No book of its lamented author has more 
 endearing qualities." 
 
 JO'S BOYS, and How They Turned Out 
 
 A Sequel to " Little Men." By LOUISA M. ALCOTT. With 10 full-page 
 plates by Ellen Wetherald Ahrens. Crown 8vo. Decorated cloth. $2.00. 
 
 Those who were fascinated by the story of the Marsh family in " Little Men " will take a 
 keen interest in the experiences of Mrs. Jo's boys. "The boys are as entertaining as 
 their elders were in their time," says the Worcester Spy, "and the story has plenty of life 
 and incident, fun and pathos ; its atmosphere is fresh, pure, and wholesome." 
 " The young folks who have been charmed with Miss Alcott's previous stories," says the 
 San Francisco Chronicle, "will read 'Jo's Boys' with avidity." The illustration* by 
 Charlotte Harding are in keeping with the spirit of the author. 
 
 THE FOUR VOLUMES PUT UP IN BOX, $8.00 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, fc? COMPANY 
 
 Publishers, 254 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, MASS
 
 University of California 
 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 Return this material to the library 
 
 from which it was borrowed. 
 

 
 mini n ii in"" 111 1 " 
 
 A 000132779