for some weeks life went on quietly for the corliss family, made more interesting by the coming of caliban, who resembled his late mistress in some unexpected qualities. but the family had got used to being surprised by aunt nan’s jokes, so that they were no longer jokes at all. and nothing further of a mysterious nature happened in mary’s library, so that everybody had about forgotten the excitement of the watch, the bookmark, and the unexplained key.
the more mary read her shakespeare, the better she liked the plays, which, as she said, were “just full of familiar quotations!” caliban approved heartily of mary’s reading. he liked nothing better than to curl up in her lap while she sat in the big easy-chair, with her book resting on its broad arm; and his rumbling purr made a pleasant accompaniment whenever she read aloud. for mary liked to read aloud to herself and to him. it made her understand the story so much better.
[59]probably caliban was used to assisting aunt nan in this same way. he was truly a cat of fine education. mary wondered if he knew all the books in the library. “he looks wise enough to,” she thought.
“i think caliban likes some plays better than others,” she confided to her mother. “he didn’t seem to care so much for ‘midsummer night’s dream,’ but then, i had almost finished it before he came. he was crazy over ‘julius cæsar,’—you ought to have heard him purr at marc antony’s great speech! and now that i have begun ‘the tempest,’ he gets so excited, mother!”
“of course,” said mrs. corliss; “that’s where he comes in, isn’t it?”
“yes,” said mary. “oh, mumsie, i was so surprised when i found caliban’s name in the list of characters! i just shouted it right out; and you ought to have seen caliban arch his neck and rub his head against me, and purr like a little furnace. i’m sure he knew it was his play. and isn’t it a lovely play, mother? i like it best of all.”
“so do i,” said her mother.
one day mary coaxed katy summers home with her after school. “the time has come for[60] you to keep your promise, katy,” said mary. “you’ve got to listen to shakespeare now.”
“all right,” said katy resignedly. “i suppose i must, sooner or later.”
“i am going to read you some of ‘the tempest,’” said mary. “i want you to like it as well as i do.”
“you know i never cared for poetry,” said katy doubtfully.
“but you will care for this,” said mary positively, “especially if you hear it read. that’s the way everybody ought to know poetry, i think. why, even caliban likes to hear me read poetry. see, here he comes to listen.”
sure enough, at the sound of mary’s voice caliban had come running into the library with a little purr. he looked very handsome and fluffy these days. waving his tail majestically, he jumped up into mary’s lap and sat on her knee blinking his green eyes at katy as if to say, “now you are going to hear something fine!”
“i believe john is right,” said katy. “he does look like a witch-cat. he’s too knowing by half! i suppose i shall have to like the reading, if he says so.” katy was just a bit jealous of mary’s new friend.
“of course caliban knows what is best!”[61] chuckled mary. “now, listen, katy.” and she began to read the beautiful lines. presently she caught up with her own bookmark, and went on with scenes which she had not read before. mary read very nicely, and katy listened patiently, while caliban purred more and more loudly, “knitting” with busy paws on mary’s knees.
after a while katy saw mary’s eyes grow wide, and she paused in the reading, ceasing to stroke caliban’s glossy fur. caliban looked up at her and stopped purring, as if to say, “what is it, little mistress?”
“what is the matter? go on, mary,” cried katy. “i like it!”
“it’s a song,” said mary, in a queer voice, “and words of it are underlined, katy, in the same way that the other place i told you of was underlined.”
katy nodded eagerly. she had heard about the clue to the finding of the key. “what does it say?” she asked.
and mary read the lines of the song:—
“full fathom five thy father lies;
of his bones are coral made;
those are pearls, that were his eyes;
nothing of him that doth fade,
[62]
but doth suffer a sea-change
into something rich and strange.
sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell;
hark! now i hear them—ding-dong, bell!”
“it’s lovely!” cried katy. “and which lines are underscored, mary?”
“‘of his bones are coral made,’ and ‘those are pearls that were his eyes,’ and ‘something rich and strange.’ oh, katy, what do you suppose aunt nan meant this time?” said mary with eager eyes.
at this point caliban arched his back and yawned prodigiously, then jumped down on the floor and sat at mary’s feet, switching his tail.
“hurry and look at the notes at the end of the book, mary!” cried katy, almost as much excited as her friend. “i did not know that poetry could be so interesting.”
mary turned hastily to the back of the book. in the margin beside the printed notes were penned several words; references to other plays which evidently aunt nan wanted mary to look up. “bother!” said mary in disappointment; “it’s only more quotations. i don’t want to stop for them.”
“you had better, mary,” suggested katy.[63] “perhaps if you do they will give you still another clue. see how queer caliban looks!”
the cat was looking up in mary’s face expectantly; and when she stooped to pat him, he opened his mouth and gave a strange, soundless “miaou!”
“it looked as if he said ‘yes!’ didn’t it, katy?” said mary. “well, then, i suppose i had better do it. the first reference is to ‘as you like it,’ act ii, scene i.”
mary went to the shakespeare shelf, found the volume quickly, and looked up the proper place. “yes!” she exclaimed, “there is a line underscored here, too,—‘wears yet a precious jewel in his head.’ what a queer saying, katy! what do you suppose it means? and this is the next quotation, in the ‘sonnets’—number cxxxv, line 1. here it is! ‘whoever has her wish, you have your will.’ now, what connection can there be between those two things, katy?”
“i don’t know!” said katy, disappointed. “is that all, are you sure? it doesn’t seem to mean anything, does it?”
“wait a minute!” added mary. “here in the sonnet-margin she has written, ‘will s.—yours. look!’”
[64]“look where?” wondered katy. “what will s. have you, mary?”
at the word “look!” mary had glanced up at the portrait of aunt nan, and it seemed to her as if the eyes in the picture were cast down on something below them. mary’s own eyes followed the look, and fell on the bust of shakespeare in the middle of the mantelshelf. “does she mean—perhaps she does—that bust of will shakespeare?” said mary. “it is mine now, of course. ‘whoever has her wish’—‘wears yet a precious jewel in his head’—‘something rich and strange.’”
“oh, mary! it all fits together!” cried katy, clapping her hands. “do have a look at that bust, dear! if it is your will.”
“that’s just what i will do!” cried mary, running to the mantelpiece, with katy close behind her, and caliban following them both.
the bust was a plaster one about six inches high, and it stood on a black marble block like a little pedestal. mary had dusted it many times and she knew it was not fastened to the pedestal and that it was hollow. but was it also empty?
while the girls were looking at the bust, caliban suddenly made two leaps, one to a chair, then to the mantelshelf which he reached without[65] a slip. then he took up his pose beside the bust of shakespeare, and sat blinking wisely at them.
“do look at caliban!” cried katy. “he certainly looks as if he knew secrets!”
“perhaps he does,” said mary. “maybe there is a secret about this bust. i am going to see. if you please, master will s.”
she took down the bust and shook it gently. nothing rattled inside. nothing fell out. she poked with her finger as far as she could reach. there seemed to be nothing in the interior.
“try again, mary,” begged katy, producing something from her pocket. “here’s my folding button-hook.” cautiously mary thrust the hook up into the place where the brains of william s. would have been, were they not distributed about the library instead in the form of books.
yes! there was something up in the head; something that was yielding to the touch of the steel; something that came out at last in her hand. it was a piece of soft chamois-skin, folded and tied with green silk cord like that on which hung the mysterious key.
“oh, mary!” cried katy, holding her breath. “what is it?”
[66]“sh!” said mary, with shining eyes. cautiously she undid the little packet; and there inside was another packet, wrapped in silver foil, very tiny, very hard. mary squeezed it gently, but the feeling gave no clue as to the contents.
while katy watched her with bulging eyes, mary peeled off the silver paper, a bit at a time. first of all was revealed a pink bead; more pink beads; a whole necklace, strung on a pink thread, of the most beautiful coral.
“miaou!” cried caliban suddenly.
“oh-h!” cried katy. “i never saw anything so sweet!”
“‘of his bones are coral made,’” quoted mary. “oh, clever aunt nan!— what else?” for the next quotation was running in her head, and she was very eager. with trembling fingers she unwrapped the rest of the package, and brought to light a tiny pasteboard box of not more than an inch in any dimension.
“i know what it is!” whispered katy.
but she gasped when she saw what really came out—yes, a ring, on a white velvet bed. but such a ring! it had two big pearls in it, side by side, as big as the end of mary’s little finger.
[67]“oh!” cried mary with delight. “what a beautiful ring! i do love pearls.—‘those are pearls which were his eyes,’ katy, do you see? and this is the ‘something rich and strange.’ what fun it is to find a treasure all by the aid of lovely quotations!”
“i think it is wonderful!” said katy. “it is so poetic.”
“come; let’s show these to father and mother,” said mary, giving caliban a big hug. and off the two girls ran to exhibit the treasures.
mrs. corliss was delighted with her daughter’s find. “i am glad you have the pretty necklace to wear with your best dresses,” she said. “it is very nice and suitable for a schoolgirl. but the pearl ring—i think we must put that away until you are older. it is too valuable and too conspicuous. i don’t like to see little girls wearing jewelry.”
“i can wear it when i go to college—if i go; may i not, mother?” asked mary wistfully.
“oh, yes, if you go to college, dearie,” sighed her mother. “at any rate, you can wear it when you are eighteen.”
dr. corliss examined the ring carefully. “yes, i am sure i have seen aunt nan wear[68] it,” he said. “it must be one of the set of famous pearls that she was once proud of. doubtless she sold the rest long ago and gave the money to her hospital. i am glad mary has this; but mother is right. school-girls should not wear jewelry. put it away until you are grown-up, my daughter.”
so mary fastened the pretty necklace about her round throat, and shut the pearl ring away in her bureau drawer, with a sigh.
but katy summers said:—
“i wouldn’t mind, mary, even if you can’t wear it yet. just to think that you have it, and that you got it in such a mysterious way! why, it is like a story-book!”
“doesn’t it make you want to hear some more shakespeare?” demanded mary, laughing.
“indeed it does!” agreed katy. “i’ll come and listen whenever you will let me. who knows what may happen? yes, i’ll wager that caliban knows.”
“the same thing never happens twice,” sighed mary.
john was disgusted when he came home from a meeting of the big four to find that he had missed this most exciting discovery; although, after all, when it came to the jewelry, john[69] thought the result rather small. “my goodness, mary!” he exclaimed, “i’ll bet there are lots more things hidden in that old library of yours. don’t you go and do all the hunting when i’m not here.”
“i don’t,” said mary. “i didn’t mean to hunt. i don’t ever mean to hunt. but if things come—all right.”
“i wish you’d let me have the fun of hunting in the library all i want, just once,” said john wistfully.
mary hesitated. she did not want anybody to rummage among her books. but she hated to be “stingy,” and she felt as if she were really having more than her share of fun out of aunt nan’s legacy, in spite of john’s two thousand dollars. so she said generously, without letting john see how great an effort it was: “all right, johnny. to-morrow is saturday, and i’ll give you free leave to hunt all you want to in my library. i won’t even come to bother you.”
“bully for you!” crowed john. “finding’s having?”
but that was more than mary bargained for.
“oh, no, john!” she cried. “i don’t think aunt nan would like that. do you?”
[70]“oh, bother! i suppose not,” grumbled john. “she was a queer one!”
the next saturday morning john spent in hunting that library from floor to ceiling. caliban, sitting on a corner of the mantelpiece, watched him gravely during the whole operation, but offered no suggestions. john poked behind the books, in every corner, under every rug. he even ripped open a bit of the cover on the old sofa. but nothing interesting could he find.
“i say, caliban, can’t you help me?” he said once, to the watching cat.
but caliban only blinked, and gave his tail a little switch.
“i’ll give it up!” growled john at last, disgustedly, when mary came to call him to dinner. “i guess you’ve got about all you are ever going to get out of aunt nan’s legacy. if caliban knows anything more about it he won’t tell me. anyway, i’ve got my two thousand, and that’s best of all.”
“all right, john,” retorted mary good-naturedly. “i’ve got my two thousand books, anyway, and caliban. so i am not complaining.”
she did not tell john that she still hoped to solve the mystery of the key on the green silk[71] cord; not to solve it by hunting or by hurrying, but in aunt nan’s own way, whatever that might be.
and caliban, looking up at her, switched his tail and gave a wise, solemn wink.
