CHAPTER XXIV
WHO IS CHLOE?
Cablegram!
Mimi dropped her packages and ran for the office. She almost fell overa workman who was busy replacing the glass she had shattered last night.
"You have a cablegram for me?" she asked Dr. Barnes' secretary.
"One has come for you, but Dr. Barnes has it. He is out now. He saidtell you no one was ill and for you not to be frightened. That it wasabout a matter you and he had discussed privately. That is why hewished to deliver the message; he wants to talk to you."
"Shall I wait?"
"I wouldn't. Dr. Barnes is with the college seniors. In spite of allthat has happened, we hope to carry through our Commencement asplanned. He is in the chapel watching the rehearsal for Baccalaureatetomorrow. Come back by."
"How long?"
"I'd say thirty minutes, but your guess is as good as mine."
Thirty minutes was an eternity! No use to try to do anything else.Might as well sit here.
"Coming back next year?" the secretary asked Mimi. She had completedreservations for three girls since Mimi had been waiting.
"Not next year. I can't. I don't graduate. I'm just a second yearPrep." Not because she wanted to be impudent but because she was on theverge of exploding she added: "If Dr. Barnes doesn't come in prettysoon I won't be in _any_ school. I'll be 'dead and buried behind theold church door.'"
"Don't you have something you could be doing?"
"No ma'am."
That wasn't quite true but near enough.
"Here, then, fold these programs. That's right. Like this one on topthat I folded."
Being busy helped but at every footstep in the hall she jerked uprightand craned her neck. She folded feverishly and had done a pile as highas the big dictionary on the library desk when Dr. Barnes arrived.
"Well, well. How are you, Miss Mimi? I was distressed for fear youwould be ill after so much excitement last night, or I should say thismorning early."
"I am fine, thank you, sir."
Please, Dr. Barnes. PLEASE! Hurry!
"You were a brave girl, Miss Mimi. Now I hope that this news will notprove too much excitement for you, coming as it does right on top ofthe fire."
He had the message in his hand. If he didn't read it or let her have itat once, she would _have_ to jerk it from him. Slower than a snail, asloth, molasses in January--slower than all the slow things in theworld put together, Dr. Barnes adjusted his glasses and cleared histhroat.
"The message is from your father in Leipzig. But here--you may read itfor yourself."
Her breath bated, her eyes dancing, Mimi took the paper.
"PATIENT PROVED TO BE YOUR FRITZ. FULL DEATH-BED CONFESSION. I KNOW WHOCHLOE IS. FINE FAMILY NOW DECEASED. KEEP SECRET. MOTHER AND JUNIOR DOCKJUNE FIFTH. LOVE DADDY."
Chloe was somebody! As if she hadn't known! "Mother and Junior arecoming home! Oh, D-d-doctor Barnes!"
"There, there, child," He rose from his desk and came around and pattedher head. What a dear he was! "I was afraid it would be too much forone little girl to save her schoolmates from fire and to solve amystery all in one short day's span."
"That smoke nearly p-p-put my eyes out--I'm all right."
"You certainly are. You are one of our finest girls. Shall we send forChloe and let her hear the things I have to say?"
"Please, sir."
Dr. Barnes picked up his telephone and asked that Chloe be sent down.
"Dr. Barnes, Betsy and Sue know that Chloe is adopted and that she waskidnaped. They are the only other girls in school who do. They will beso happy to know who Chloe is, could we send for them, too? I'd ratherthey knew it all now and get it correctly than have to tell themlater--because I would tell them--and maybe, get it twisted. Chloewouldn't care."
"Perhaps you are right, Mimi."
He lifted the receiver again. As it clicked back in place, hissecretary entered.
"Excuse me, Dr. Barnes. Miss Marcia Madison is here and I thought youwould wish to see her at once."
"By all means. Invite her in."
He moved toward the door to welcome her. Mimi's eyes followed his everymove.
Mimi had not pictured her like this. The few snapshots Chloe had showedher were very misleading. Aunt Marcia was attractive! She was tall,erect, stately. Mimi liked her tailored sheer navy blue ensemble. Shewore her clothes with that air of assurance well-groomed people have.She was so much more alive and animated than Mimi had expected. Hervoice, as she talked to Dr. Barnes, was low and refined. Only her faceshowed that she had known great sorrow and loneliness.
"George! It's lovely to see you! You look quite fit I was afraid thisterrible fire would have you dreadfully upset and you'd have no timefor visitors."
"You look charming yourself, Marcia. You timed your arrival perfectly.I have sent for your niece. She will be here any moment."
It's like a play Mimi thought. All the characters rushing on for thefinale.
"Since I wrote asking your permission to send Dr. Hammond certaininformation, many things have developed. If you will read this,"--heheld out the cablegram--"you will be prepared for what is coming."
She had barely skimmed it when Chloe, Sue and Betsy entered.
"You funny little tramps!"
Aunt Marcia was laughing at their borrowed clothes. She kissed her ownlittle tramp and hugged the others in turn, Sue first because she knewher. Mimi, who had risen from her chair and stood quietly by it eversince Aunt Marcia entered, went over for her hug, too.
Gee! Aunt Marcia smelled sweet! She was sweet Mimi knew for sure beforethe conference ended.
"Chloe!" Mimi burst out. "Daddy did it! He has found out who you are!He found the kidnaper!"
"Who--am--I?"
Chloe's dark eyes burned with questions. Her face went white with fear,then flushed red with hope. A Mother? A Daddy like the other girls!
"Your mother and father are dead, and as far as we know you have nobrothers or sisters; but Daddy says you are from a fine oldfamily!--And girls! My very own Mother Dear and Junior _are cominghome_! They'll dock June fifth."
Strange, how even grown people stood back and let Mimi do all thetalking. But she put her whole heart and soul into every word she spokeand that made people like to hear her.
"My--parents--dead! Then I've waited too long to find them? Oh,Mimi--oh, Aunt Marcia----!"
"You still have me, dear!"
Aunt Marcia crushed the forlorn little girl in her arms--this beautifulgirl who this morning in her ill-fitting clothes looked much more likea neglected little orphan than that day when Aunt Marcia had taken herfrom the Home. Aunt Marcia's white kid gloves, the white gardenias, herwhite purse, none of the fresh white accessories which set off her navyensemble, mattered. She held Chloe tightly. She would never let her go.Next year she would not even let her go away to school. They would begreat chums. She had never realized before that this beautiful girl wasas love starved and lonely as she herself. She would make up to her forall the happy family life each had missed.
Every one in the room felt what Aunt Marcia was thinking. Betsy and Suehad their eyes fixed on their toes.
Dr. Barnes lifted his gentle eyes as if he were praying. A tear rolledfrom beneath his glasses and he made no move to wipe it away. Mimi hadno words left. She felt the way she did at church during Communionservice, small and helpless as a mere speck of a speck and yet large asthe great universal spirit of love. Such moments caught and held her.From them, each time, the magic trail of beauty unfolded anew and ledinto a happier world.
Her own Daddy had brought about this never-to-be-forgotten moment. Shetook no thought of the part she had played in the solution of thecrime. Her Daddy! And with the next thought the tension broke. Motherand Junior coming home when she hadn't had the faintest idea they'd beback before fall. Here came the tears! The spell was broken.
"Why do I cry--w-when I'm so happy?" she blurted out.
"We all
do that, Mimi. Tears are our safety valve."
Mimi turned to him as he spoke and saw Dr. Barnes take the whitehandkerchief from his coat pocket and wipe under his glasses.
"Shall we sit down? We still have much to say to each other."
Sue and Betsy squeezed into one chair. Aunt Marcia sat across the deskfrom Dr. Barnes and, although Aunt Marcia knew "young ladies"instructed by Mrs. Cole did not sit on the arms of chairs, she pulledChloe down on the arm of hers. After Dr. Barnes decided that Mimiintended to remain standing, he seated himself.
Sit down? Not to save her life.
"Shall I begin with my first letter to Daddy?" Mimi asked Dr. Barnes.
"No--contrary to my first idea, I think I shall begin this story. Iforget that you girls, and Chloe herself, do not know many things I do."
All eyes focused on Dr. Barnes.
"More years ago than I care to count, but it was a year or two beforemost of you girls were born, I did the hardest thing I have had to doin my entire life. My superior officer, Captain Bill Harrison, who wasmy friend as well as commander, lay mortally wounded in a shell hole inno man's land--Marcia, please excuse me if this is difficult for youbut I want these girls to know you as I do--I had dragged him thereduring a lull in the bombing. Both of us were wounded; I slightly, Billfatally. 'I'm going on--old man,' he gasped. From the light of a rocketwhich flared above us I could see his agony and knew that he wastelling the truth. He was trying to take something out of his pocketbut he was too weak. I unbuttoned his stained uniform and drew out apicture of Marcia." Dr. Barnes reached across the desk and patted AuntMarcia's gloved hand. She had a far away look in her eyes but she waserect and smiling faintly. "I held it up before his cloudedeyes--'Darling--See her Barney--and tell--her--I love----' But he hadgone on before he finished. A year later I brought his effects andmessage home to a gallant lady."
Dr. Barnes had to wait for his throat to relax before he continued.
"Another year passed swiftly and that same lady, still gallant andsmiling, came to me for advice. She was lonely she said. Knowing thatshe would never marry because all of that kind of love she had to givewas buried in Flanders, she discussed with me her idea of adopting adaughter.
"I was with Marcia when she selected Clorissa from the fifty childrensubject to adoption. You were a lovely little thing, Chloe, and thatwas not your name at all. Your Aunt Marcia renamed you and gave you herown last name of Madison. You held out your tiny arms and ran out fromthe line of children as if you were expecting a beautiful lady to takeyou in her arms. When you were nearer, however, you stopped and hungyour head, but you had touched Marcia's heart. She wanted none of thechildren so much as you. The record showed that you had been leftinside of the wall of the home and, when found by a nurse, you wereleaning against a tree sobbing. There was a note tied to your wriststating that your father had been deported and that your Aunt wouldcome someday from the old country to claim you. This story was creditedand recorded, but two years had passed and no word had come so you wereplaced on the list for adoption. These are the things I wrote yourfather, Mimi."
Not even Mimi spoke.
Dr. Barnes had woven a spell over his hearers. Chloe, although shestrained forward and clenched her hand on Aunt Marcia's arm tighter,uttered no word. It was as if she were listening to a gripping storyabout some one else.
"Shall _I_ begin now?"
"Yes, Mimi, but I wanted you girls to know as much as possible. Thereis still much to unravel."
"My story will be brief," Mimi began. "I wrote my Daddy the littleChloe had told me. Daddy answered sympathetically but figured there wasnothing he could do. Then a most peculiar thing occurred. Daddy wascalled to see a sick man in the slums of Leipzig. At first he wasmerely another patient, a big fellow who was slowly dying of anincurable malady. The second time Daddy was called the man wasdelirious--he muttered and cursed some one called Freida. At the nameFreida something inside Daddy clicked. He knew the man had lived in theUnited States. When he rolled up the man's ragged sleeves to give him ahypodermic to quiet his raving, he saw the man's arms were _tattooed_!That in itself was not unusual but it dovetailed perfectly with whatChloe had told me. Daddy asked the man's friends a few questions. Whenhe got home he wrote me for more details. In the meantime Chloedescribed the tattooed pictures. One day Daddy dropped by to see theman and he was gone. When my letter arrived, he searched high and lowfor him and could not find him. The name had been fictitious.
"The next time Daddy was called the man whom we now know was Fritz musthave been dying. By reading the cablegram, we know Daddy somehowmanaged to use the little knowledge he had, plus his hunch that the manwas guilty, and by playing the great American game of bluff, pulled aconfession from him."
"You told me your Daddy was the best _doctor_ in the world, not thegreatest _detective_," Betsy said.
"He's _both_!"
"He's made me very happy," Chloe declared softly. Her head had droppedto Aunt Marcia's shoulder.
"No happier than I," Aunt Marcia added. "Regardless of who your parentswere, you are my girl and I love you. Now--no one can take you awayfrom me."
Aunt Marcia has suffered fears, too.