Madge Morton's Victory Part 10

Phyllis laughed teasingly. "Oh, you will have plenty of excitement, Madge dear, wherever you are or whatever you do. Don't you remember how Miss Betsey used to say that she knew something was going to happen whenever you were about? I suppose you would like to be a captain in the Navy like your father, so that you could spend all your time on the sea."

"No," returned Madge, "I should want a s.h.i.+p of my own. I wouldn't like to be a captain in the Navy. There, you always have to do just what you are told to do, and you know, Phil, that obedience is not my strong point."

The little captain laughed and shook her russet head. "You see, Phil, I think that if I could go around the world, perhaps in some far-away land I would find my father waiting for me."

For several minutes the two chums were silent. At last Phil leaned forward and gave Madge's arm a gentle pinch. "Wake up, dear," she laughed, "perhaps some day you will own that little s.h.i.+p and go around the world in it. Just now, however, we had better go on to the houseboat.

I believe Nellie and Lillian are going to wait at the golf club until the last mail comes in, so they can bring our letters along home with them.

We must say good-bye to that nice Ethel Swann. She is a dear, in spite of her ill-bred friends."

Phyllis and Madge found Miss Jenny Ann sitting in a steamer chair on the houseboat deck exchanging fairy stories with Tania. The little girl knew almost as many as did her chaperon, but Tania's stories were so full of her own odd fancies that it was hard to tell from what source they had come.

"Do you know the story of 'The Little Tin Soldier,' Tania?" Miss Jenny Ann had just asked. "He was the bravest little soldier in the world, because he bore all kinds of misfortunes and never complained."

With a whirl Tania was out of Miss Jenny Ann's lap and into Madge's arms.

The child was devoted to each member of the houseboat party, but she was Madge's ardent adorer. She liked to play that she was the little captain's Fairy G.o.dmother, and that she could grant any wish that Madge might make.

Phil, Madge and Tania sat down at Miss Jenny Ann's feet to hear more about "The Brave Little Tin Soldier." Tania huddled close to Madge, her black head resting against the older girl's curls, as she listened to the harrowing adventures that befell the Tin Soldier.

The sun was sinking. Away over the water the world seemed rose colored, but the shadows were deepening on the land. Phil espied Lillian and Eleanor coming toward the houseboat. Lillian waved a handful of white envelopes, but Eleanor walked more slowly and did not glance up toward her friends.

Miss Jenny Ann rose hurriedly. "I must go in to see to our dinner," she announced. "Phil, after you have spoken to the girls, will you come in to help me? Madge may stay to look after Tania."

The little captain was absorbed in a quiet twilight dream, and as Tania was in her lap she did not get up when Phil went forward to meet Lillian and Eleanor.

Instantly Phil realized that something was the matter with Nellie.

Eleanor's face was white and drawn and there were tears in her gentle, brown eyes. Lillian also looked worried and sympathetic, but was evidently trying to appear cheerful.

"What is the matter, Eleanor? Has any one hurt your feelings?" asked Phil immediately. Eleanor was the youngest of the girls and always the one to be protected. Phyllis guessed that perhaps some one of the unpleasant acquaintances of Roy Dennis and Mabel Farrar might have been unkind to her.

But Eleanor shook her head dumbly.

"Nellie has had some bad news from home," answered Lillian, tenderly putting her arm about Eleanor. "Perhaps it isn't so bad as she thinks."

Madge overheard Lillian's speech and, lifting Tania from her lap, sprang to her feet.

"Nellie, darling, what is it? Tell me at once!" she demanded. "If Uncle and Aunt are ill, we must go to them at once."

"It isn't so bad as that, Madge," answered Eleanor, finding her voice; "only Mother has written to tell us that Father has lost a great deal of money. He has had to mortgage dear old 'Forest House,' and if he doesn't get a lot more money by fall, 'Forest House' will have to be sold."

Nellie broke down. The thought of having to give up her dear old Virginia home, that had been in their family for five generations, was more than she could bear.

Madge kissed Eleanor gently. In the face of great difficulties Madge was not the harum-scarum person she seemed. "Don't worry too much, Nellie,"

she urged. "If Uncle and Aunt are well, then the loss of the money isn't so dreadful. Somehow, I don't believe we shall have to give up 'Forest House.' It would be too frightful! Perhaps Uncle will find the money in time to save it, or we shall get it in some way. I am nearly grown now. I ought to be able to help. Anyhow, I don't mean to be an expense to Uncle and Aunt any more after this summer." Madge's face clouded, although she tried to conceal her dismay. "Do Uncle and Aunt want us to leave the houseboat and come home at once?"

Phil's and Lillian's faces were as long and as gloomy as their other chums' at this suggestion.

But Eleanor shook her head firmly. "No; Father says positively that he does not wish us to leave the houseboat until our holiday is over. It is not costing us very much and he wishes us to have a good time this summer, so that we can bear whatever happens next winter."

No one had noticed little Tania while the houseboat girls were talking.

Her eyes were bigger and blacker than ever, and as Madge turned to go into the cabin she saw that there were tears in them.

"What is it, Tania?" putting her arms about the quaint child.

"Did you say that you didn't have all the money you wanted?" inquired Tania anxiously. "I didn't know that people like you ever needed money. I thought that all poor people lived in slums and took in was.h.i.+ng like old Sal."

Madge laughed. "I don't suppose the people in the tenements are as poor as we are sometimes, Tania, because they don't need so many things. But don't worry your head about me, little Fairy G.o.dmother. I am sure that you will bring me good luck."

CHAPTER XI

THE BEGINNING OF TROUBLE

"Madge, I am afraid that you and the girls are not having as good a time at Cape May as I had hoped you would have," remarked Mrs. Curtis to the little captain about a week later as they strolled along the beautiful ocean boulevard that overlooked the sea. Only the day before Mrs. Curtis and Tom had returned from Chicago. Just behind them, Lillian, Miss Jenny Ann, Phyllis, Tom Curtis and Mrs. Curtis's protege, Philip Holt, loitered along the beach. They were too far away to overhear the conversation of the two women.

"On the contrary, we are having a perfectly beautiful time," answered Madge, her face radiant with the pleasure of her surroundings. "I think Cape May is one of the loveliest places in the whole world! And we girls have met the most splendid old sea captain. He has the dearest, snuggest little house up the bay! He was once a deep-sea diver and knows the most fascinating stories about the treasures of the sea." Madge ceased speaking. She could tell from her friend's slightly bored expression that Mrs. Curtis was not interested in the story of a common sailor.

"Yes, Madge, I know about all that," Mrs. Curtis returned a little coldly. "What I meant is that I fear you girls are not enjoying the social life of Cape May, which is what I looked forward to for you. I do wish, dear, that you cared more for society and less for such people as this old sailor and a tenement child like Tania. I doubt if this man is a fit a.s.sociate for you."

Madge's blue eyes darkened. She thought of the splendid old sailor, with his great strength and gentle manners, his knowledge of the world and his fine simplicity, and of queer, loving little Tania, but she wisely held her peace. "I am sorry, too, that I don't like society more if you wish it," she replied sweetly. "I do like the society of clever, agreeable people, but not--I like Ethel Swann and her friends immensely," she ended. "And, please, don't say anything against my old pearl diver, Mrs.

Curtis, until you see him. I am sure that you and Tom will think that he is splendid."

Mrs. Curtis looked searchingly at Madge, and Madge returned her gaze without lowering her eyes. Mrs. Curtis's face softened. She found it hard to scold her favorite, but she had been very much vexed at the story that Philip Holt had repeated to her of Madge's escapades at Cape May, and how she accused Roy Dennis of cowardice when he had taken her and her friends on his boat after Madge's and Phil's own heedlessness had caused their skiff to be overturned. Somehow, the tale of the throwing of the ball on board Roy Dennis's yacht and of frightening Mabel Farrar had also gone abroad in Cape May. Lillian had confided the anecdote to Ethel Swann under promise of the greatest secrecy. The story had seemed to Ethel too ridiculous to keep to herself, so she had repeated it to another friend, after demanding the same promise that Lillian had exacted from her. And so the story had traveled and grown until it was a very mischievous tale that Philip Holt had recounted to Mrs. Curtis, taking care that Tom Curtis was not about when he told it.

Mrs. Curtis thought Madge too old for such practical jokes. She also believed that Madge should have more dignity and self-control. She loved her very dearly, and she wished her to come to live with her as her daughter after her own, daughter, Madeleine, had married, but Mrs. Curtis was determined that the little captain should learn to be less impetuous and more conventional.

"Philip Holt has told you something about me, hasn't he, Mrs. Curtis?"

asked Madge meekly, hiding the flash in her eyes by lowering her lids.

"Philip told me very little. He is the soul of honor," answered Mrs.

Curtis quickly. "You are absurdly prejudiced against him. But with the little that he told me and what I have gathered from other sources, I feel that you have been most indiscreet. I can't help thinking that the various things that have happened may be laid at your door, and that the other girls have just stood by you, as they always do."

Madge bit her lips. "Whatever has occurred that you don't like is my fault, Mrs. Curtis," she confessed, "and Phil, Lillian and Nellie _have_ stood by me. I am sorry that you are angry."

The other young people were coming closer. Not for worlds would Madge have had them overhear her conversation with Mrs. Curtis. She was too proud and too hurt to ask Mrs. Curtis just what Philip Holt had said against her. Neither would she retaliate against him by telling her friend of his rudeness.

Mrs. Curtis put one arm about Madge. "It is all right, my dear," she said, softening a little, "but you must promise me that you will not do such harum-scarum things again, and that you will try to keep your temper." Mrs. Curtis was on the point of asking Madge to give up her acquaintance with the sailor and not to see the man again, but she knew that her young friend was feeling a little hurt and no doubt resentful toward her, so she put off making her request until a later time.

"Tania has behaved very well, so far, hasn't she, Madge?" Mrs. Curtis tactfully changed the subject. "I confess I am surprised. Philip Holt a.s.sured me that the child was continually in mischief in the tenement neighborhood where she lives. When he took her into the neighborhood house to try to help her she positively stole something. I am afraid Tania's mother was not the woman you think she was; she was only a cheap little actress, a dancer." Mrs. Curtis glanced at her companion. Madge was eyeing her seriously.

"It isn't like you, Mrs. Curtis, dear, to say things against people.

Philip Holt must have----" Madge stopped abruptly. At the same time Tom Curtis came up from behind to join his mother and the girl.

"Come on, Madge, and have a race with me across the sands," he urged.

"Mother will be trying to make you so grown-up that we can't have any sport at all. Besides, you are looking pale. I am sure you need exercise.

There is a crowd over there in front of the music pavilion. I will wager a five-pound box of candy that I can beat you to it. Philip Holt will entertain Mother. She likes him better than she does the rest of us, anyhow, because he devotes his time to good works and to working good people," added Tom teasingly, under his breath.