The Carter Girls' Mysterious Neighbors

  CHAPTER XIII

  GOOSE STEPPING

  The winter wore on. Our warriors were fighting the good fight and eachnight as they gathered round the cheerful fire in the great chimney inthe living-room at Valhalla they had tales to tell of difficultiesovercome. Of course there were failures, many of them, but each failuremeant a lesson learned and better luck next time.

  Douglas had days when the little ideas refused to shoot and her pupilsseemed to be just so many wooden dolls, but she learned the rare lesson,that teachers must learn if they are to be successful: when a classwon't learn, and can't learn, and doesn't want to learn, there issomething the matter with the teacher. When she came to this realizationshe took herself to task, and the dark days came farther and fartherapart.

  The letter she had written Dr. Wright had had a most salutary effect onBobby. That young physician had taken the naughty boy for a long rideand had given him a man to man talk, first temporarily dismissing himfrom his employ and sternly forbidding him to hold out his hand whenthey were going around corners. He was not allowed to blow the horn atdangerous curves and all of his honors were stripped from him.

  "It nearly killed me to do it," George Wright confessed to Helen. "Icouldn't look him in the eye for fear of weakening, but he took it likethe little man he is. I fancy Douglas will have no more trouble with himfor a while. I am glad she asked me to help her out. It is no joke toteach your own flesh and blood. Bobby says he thought that Douglas wasjust playing school and he didn't know he was really bothering her. Heknows now and is even prepared to lick any boy not twice his size whodisturbs his sister."

  Count de Lestis seemed to have much business that took him away fromWeston. Sometimes he was gone for several weeks at a time, but when hereturned he would drop in at Valhalla as though he had not been away atall. He was always a welcome visitor. Mrs. Carter greeted him as a longlost friend. He seemed to be the incarnation of the social world to thepoor little lady, destined to spend her days out of her element. Mr.Carter had almost forgiven him the pigeon house, but not quite.

  "There is something lacking, somehow, in a man who would do such athing," he had declared to Helen.

  The pigeon house was built by the secretary, according to his own plansand specifications, and placed on the roof, where it loomed an eyesoreto the artistic. Truly they seemed to be going into pigeon raising ingood earnest. It was a huge affair, large enough to accommodate manypigeons; and then, with the careless expenditure of money that seemed tocharacterize the master of Weston, crates of pigeons arrived and wereinstalled in their new quarters.

  "The carrier pigeons have not come, but when they do I'll bring one toyou," the count said to Douglas, "and you must promise to send me amessage." The girl laughingly promised.

  The count was still doing what Helen called "browsing." He flitted fromsister to sister, whispering his tender nothings and for the momentseeming all devotion to the one with whom he happened to be.

  "Thank goodness, I found out in time what a flirt he is!" Helenwhispered to her inmost self. "Once, for just a fraction of a second, Iwas jealous of Douglas and of Nan, too. His house is so lovely and he isso rich and handsome and so fascinating, and I do so hate to be poor!But I can't abide a male flirt!"

  Nevertheless, Helen was very glad to see the count when he called atValhalla and she was very successful in hiding her real feelingsfrom that gentleman, who twirled his saucy moustache in masculinesatisfaction when he thought of the attractive girl who so courteouslyreceived his attentions. Douglas's indifference rather piqued him andhe was constantly trying to break through it, but no matter whatflattering remarks he made to her she never seemed to know they wereintended for her, Douglas Carter.

  "That young soldier is at the bottom of it!" he would exclaim tohimself after trying his best to get an answering spark from thisgirl who appeared so altogether lovely in his eyes, more lovely anddesirable because of her indifference, and then, too, because he knewinstinctively that Herz was hopelessly in love with her; and many menare like sheep and go where others lead.

  The secretary was becoming a real nuisance to Douglas, who in a wayliked him, but who never got over his very German name and his red, redmouth. He so often seemed to know exactly the moment when she was todismiss school and would appear as she locked the schoolhouse door andquietly join her on the walk home. He was very interesting and Douglasmuch preferred him to the count, who could not be with any female formore than a few moments without bordering on love-making of some kind.Herz had a great deal of information and this he would impart toDouglas in quite the manner of a professor as he walked stiffly by herside.

  Bobby was not at all in favor of sharing the walks home with this tall,stiff stranger. Ever since Dr. Wright's talk with him he had consideredhimself Douglas's protector, and he liked to pretend that as they wentalong the lonesome road and skirted the dark pine woods he was going toshoot imaginary bandits who infested their path. He couldn't play anysuch game with this matter-of-fact man stalking along by their side,explaining to Douglas some intricate point in philosophy.

  "Say, kin you goose step?" he asked one day when Herz was especiallyirritating to him. Bobby had a "bowanarrow" hid in the bushes by thebranch, with which he had intended to kill many Indians on theirhomeward walk.

  "Yes, of course!" came rather impatiently from Herz, who thoughtchildren should be seen and not heard and that this especial child wouldbe well neither seen nor heard.

  "Well, do it!"

  "Bobby, don't bother Mr. Herz," Douglas admonished.

  "He kin talk an' goose step at the same time," Bobby insisted.

  Herz began solemnly to goose step, expounding his philosophy as he went.Bobby shrieked with delight. This wasn't such a bad companion, afterall. It was so ridiculous that Douglas could hardly refrain fromshouting as loud as Bobby.

  "Is that the way the German soldiers really walk?" asked Bobby.

  "So I am told."

  "Where did you learn to do it?" asked Douglas.

  "I--I--at a school where I was educated."

  "Oh, but you are an American, so the count told me."

  "I am an American." This was uttered in a very dead tone. The mansuddenly turned on his heel and with a muttered good-by disappeared.

  "Ain't he a nut, though?" exclaimed Bobby.

  "He is peculiar," agreed Douglas.

  "Do you like for him to walk home with you, Dug?"

  "I don't know whether I do or not."

  "Well, I don't like it a bit, 'cep'n, of co'se, when he goose steps an'then it's great. I seen a colored fellow a-goose steppin' the other day,an' he says he learned it at the count's school what Mr. Herz isa-teachin'. He says they call it settin' up exercises, but he would liketo do some settin' down exercise. I reckon he was tryin' to make akinder joke."