"what do you think?" cried patricia radiantly, swooping down on elinor as she came slowly out of the portrait room at high noon on the momentous tuesday. "what do you think, elinor kendall? i've gotten 'honorable mention' for my silly little old head! isn't it wonderful? i'm so stunned i can't talk. i never dreamed it could have the ghost of a show," she rattled on ecstatically. "miss green was paralyzed, and naskowski kept nodding till i thought he'd loosen his brain, and griffin—she got first prize you know—cheered right out loud before them all. i was simply too limp for words, and i rushed out to tell you right away."
elinor's eyes filled with a glad light, and she took patricia in her arms. "it's perfectly glorious, miss pat, darling," she said with a rapturous squeeze. "i'm so delighted i can't help kissing you on the spot," and she did it with a heartiness that made patricia wriggle.
"ouch, that's my loose wisdom-tooth you're pushing against!" she protested plaintively. "you've wobbled it all out of place, you reckless thing. there goes the crowd into the first antique. come along or we'll be too late!"
the doors of the exhibition room were pushed quickly open as mr. benton led the expectant band of students in for their first sight of the prize designs, and patricia's heart beat fast with the thrilling hope that elinor's might be among the first in rank.
her eyes swept one wall and then the other, searching for the familiar canvas, but all in vain, until she lifted them to the screen which stood in the center of the room, and where three canvases were hung, elinor's below the other two.
"there it is!" she whispered eagerly, nudging elinor to make her see. "it's on the screen. oh, norn, it must have——"
"hush!" said elinor in an undertone. "don't make a fuss. there's doris leighton waving to us from the model stand. she looks awfully well, doesn't she? her little vacation——"
but patricia was impatiently deaf. "why doesn't he get on?" she whispered testily. "we know all about the conditions of the prize. what we want to know is—oh, elinor, i'm horribly disappointed. i was afraid doris leighton would get it, but you ought to have had honorable mention. griffin's isn't half so good as yours; she said so herself. can you see what their canvases are like? i'm just so that the light glares on them for me. what's that he's saying now? he's talking about your study."
the words cut the air with an incisive clearness that left no shadow of a doubt, though patricia could scarcely credit her own ears.
"i regret to say that the third study on the screen," said mr. benton, toying with his eyeglass ribbon, "is merely placed there as a warning to students of all classes to stick to their own ideas and imaginations, and not to attempt the hazardous task of copying stronger and more experienced workers. this canvas shows so much delicacy of appreciation of the subject that, had no other of absolutely the same design been previously turned in earlier, the jury should have given it the prize. miss leighton's cleverly executed study of precisely the same subject, while more finished in treatment, is far below this one in feeling, and it is a matter of regret to me that the student who executed it should not have possessed more originality and self-reliance. miss leighton will please come forward to receive the roberts prize."
of what followed—the bestowing and graceful acceptance of the pretty purse with the hundred dollars, the congratulations and murmurs of surprise that ran about the assembly—patricia had little knowledge. those astonishing words of mr. benton had so stung and bewildered her that the room swung about her dizzily and she clutched the back of a chair for support. elinor's stricken face faded in the blurred background of all the other faces, as she flung out vain hands of protest.
"oh, it isn't fair—" she broke out, but the words that boomed so loudly in her ears were only a faint whisper, and she staggered blindly for a moment.
when she recovered herself in the dim corridor, elinor, calm and reassuring, was on one side of her, while her other arm was in the firm grip of the cheery griffin.
"that's all right, old pal," griffin encouraged her. "you're almost into port now. keep a stiff upper lip till we land you."
patricia saw that they were steering for the dressing-room couch, and meekly allowed them their way.
"now you're safe and sound, with no bones broken," said griffin, as patricia sank down on the roomy couch. "you're a nice one, you are, scaring us into a blue fit just when we were about to blister our paws with applause for the heroine of the day."
patricia looked inquiringly at elinor, who smiled at her serenely in return, much to patricia's bewilderment.
"but," she protested, raising herself on one elbow. "it wasn't true, what mr. benton said about your design. why don't you tell him so, elinor?"
elinor merely shook her head gently, while griffin stood in embarrassed silence.
"why don't you do something?" cried patricia again. "why don't you tell him? griffin, it wasn't true—that she copied it! you know she'd not do a thing like that!"
"any fool knows that," replied griffin gruffly. "if leighton had any stuff in her, she'd have spoken up. i was just going to when i saw you begin to crumple. it wasn't etiquette for me to speak, but i'd have given them something to think of!"
"it's too late now to bother about denying it, miss pat dear," said elinor soothingly. "it doesn't really matter much, you know, since we three know i didn't copy. after all, it's a very little thing. i'd rather be blamed unjustly than have done such a poor act. don't feel so badly about it, dear. we can tell our friends that it was a mistake on mr. benton's part, and they'll believe us, i'm sure. it doesn't matter for the rest."
"doesn't it, really?" blazed patricia, sitting up very stiff and straight. "well, it may not to you, but to my mind it's as bad as telling any other untruth. you're not guilty of it, and if you let the accusation pass unnoticed, you are party to the falsehood."
griffin, who was winking at her behind elinor's back in a particularly portentous fashion, turned to the door.
"calm down, miss pat," she said, with her hand on the knob. "i'm going to corral a few of the elect and put it to them. brace up and look pleasant by the time i get back."
patricia was about to break into angry tears on elinor's neck, but the brisk and significant air with which griffin spoke roused her to herself again. she put elinor's arms away, and going to the mirror, smoothed her tumbled hair, and whisked away the telltale traces of her collapse, while elinor sat quietly on the edge of the couch watching her with fond anxiety.
not a word was spoken till the door opened again, and griffin with doris leighton and miss green came quickly in.
doris leighton, who was flushed and animated, went directly up to elinor.
"it's a shame," she said, with a marked effort to subdue her own complacency. "everybody knows you are much too conscientious to do such a thing. i've told everybody how shocked i am that mr. benton should make such a horrid mistake. it's simply a thought wave, and i've told everyone that you're not at all to blame."
elinor looked at her very calmly, and said with a tinge of amusement in her level voice, "you must be very thankful that you got your study in first, for then you would have had to congratulate me instead of commiserating me."
patricia felt rather ashamed of elinor's lack of response to what she considered doris' loyal support, and she broke out gratefully, "you'll tell them all, won't you? they'll soon understand if you tell them!"
she had her reward in doris' dazzling smile, and her assurances that she would do all she could to make elinor's vindication speedy and thorough.
elinor was more cordial to miss green's solemn and indignant protest against the powers that be. the stout monitor had so much genuine good feeling that the sincerity of her wrath could not be doubted.
"it is most unfair, unfair, miss kendall," she reiterated, with her two dewlaps solemnly wagging to and fro. "it is most unprofessional of mr. benton, and, even if you had copied (which of course no one dreams of saying), it would still be most indelicate to expose a student directly to the publicity of such a reprimand. i deplore it. i deplore it most heartily. and your manner of receiving the unmerited rebuke has made me admire you more than i can say."
elinor thanked her with pretty gratitude.
"i shall make it a personal matter to report to the committee," said miss green, as she prepared to follow the vanishing skirts of the prize bearer. "i shall certainly bring the matter to their notice before the next meeting," and with a cordial shake of elinor's hand she sailed out, with her black cloak billowing behind her and her plume quivering with suppressed indignation.
"isn't she the good old sport?" cried griffin, in lively admiration. "she'll do the work of a half dozen niminy-piminy dolls like leighton. margaret howes and your humble servant will back her up, too, and that committee will sit up and take notice before it's a week older, or my name's not virginia althea frigilla griffin—just like that."
it was hard work later on, when they had to face the inquiries of the wrathful judith, to convince her that the whole thing was not a plot against elinor by some envious rival.
"mark my words, elinor kendall," she said impressively. "some one is at the bottom of this, and i have my suspicions, too, who that someone is. i'm not going to tell, for you girls always laugh at me, but i'm going to prove it to you before that committee meets that you're the victim of a conspiracy."
the relish with which judith pronounced these ominous words made elinor smile, but patricia felt only aggravation at what she considered airs on judith's part.
"stuff and nonsense, judy!" she said, impatiently. "you've been soaking your brain in fiction till you can't see straight. don't you meddle with elinor's affairs unless she gives you permission. you'll only make her ridiculous."
judith, ignoring patricia's pungent remarks, turned her calm eyes inquiringly to elinor.
"you don't mind if i can help prove that someone else was the deceiver, do you, elinor?" she asked with such seriousness that elinor rippled with enjoyment:
"bless your heart, kitten, make yourself as happy as you please with my affairs; only, i beseech of you, do it quietly and with as little martial music as possible."
judith pulled herself free from elinor's circling arms and made for the door, pausing on the threshold.
"as if i'd publish it on the housetops!" she cried in infinite disdain. "it's plain you aren't much up in detective stories."
after their laughter at her dramatic disappearance had died down, they sat quietly in the twilight watching the lamps flicker into life across the park, each one busy with her own thoughts.
"do you know, miss pat," said elinor, breaking a long silence "that i don't like doris leighton any more. it isn't because she got the prize—you know me better than to think that—but i've been noticing her more closely recently and i don't think she rings true."
"oh, i wish you wouldn't, norn," protested patricia, in a small voice. "i do so want to have her for a friend. she's so lovely and talented and attractive. what is the matter with her now that you say such things? you didn't use to feel like that."
elinor hesitated. "i don't know," she replied slowly, measuring her words. "i can't put my finger on it, but she doesn't seem the same to me as she did at first. she isn't jealous of my poor work, of course, but i can feel a something—a wall or barrier—that she raises up between us whenever my work is spoken of. i felt it when we talked about the subject of the prize designs, and i felt it today more clearly than ever. we can't be friends any more as we were, i'm afraid. something has come between us. 'the little rift within the lute,'" she quoted sorrowfully.
"'that by and by will make the music mute,'" ended patricia dismally. "oh, i hope not, norn. i hope it'll all turn out well and we can go on pleasantly and peaceably for the rest of the term. i hate rows and suspicions. i'd like to live 'in charity and love to all men,' but i'm always getting into scrapes. i no sooner learn to like a person than they turn out to be fakes."
"i haven't gone that far," elinor gently reminded her. "i didn't mean to say that doris leighton was a fake. i only meant that my feelings toward her had changed. you don't have to give up your admiration for her, pat dear."
patricia shook her head slowly from side to side. "'whither thou goest i will go,'" she quoted. "i won't have her for a friend if she gives you the creeps, norn, and you know it. i've been mistaken in people before, but you've always been the same old true blue. you and miss jinny know better than i do, and i give in. i won't be an enemy—you wouldn't want that—but i won't be a real friend like i have been, doing errands and helping her stretch canvases and all that. you and i will stand together always, old lady, and if the roberts prize has done nothing but show us how very nice we each think the other is, it will have had its uses as far as we are concerned."
they sat in comfortable silence till they heard the front door slam and judith's feet on the stair.
"i wonder what that young monkey is up to?" laughed patricia as they heard judith moving about in her room, preparing for dinner with the alacrity of hungry virtue. "she won't let on for the world, but i know she's feeling mighty important about something. i can tell by the way she whisks about that she's enjoying herself immensely."
