CHAPTER XVIII Donna and Her Don
However, if none of the Camp Fire girls thought of a possible romancebetween their new guardian and the young physician, now established asthe regular visiting doctor at the Sunrise cabin, when the month of Marchwas passing and the New Hampshire snows beginning to show every now andthen a tendency toward melting, indicating the return of the everromantic spring, there was a good deal of carefully whispered discussionabout the chief Camp Fire guardian, Miss Martha McMurtry. Their guardianof the preceding summer liked best that the girls should call her by herCamp Fire title, "The Madonna of the Hill," shortened for use into theItalian "Donna." In the first weeks at camp the summer before, MissMcMurtry had seemed to some of the Camp Fire girls a sort ofheaven-appointed old maid, a regular born and bred one. As she had livedand worked through the outdoor months with such a variety of girls,gradually this old-maidish appearance had worn off, until now there wereactually self-evident reasons for believing that Donna had a real _bonafide_ admirer in the person of the poor German gentleman who had rescuedBetty and Esther on that memorable December evening in the snow and,through their acquaintance, had since come to know every member of theclub.
It is but natural to suppose that the first breath of this suggestion mayhave been introduced by Esther Clark, since she had best opportunitiesfor making observations. Yet actually it was Betty Ashton who firstwhispered it to Esther, next to Polly, and afterward it traveled verynaturally about the select Camp Fire circle.
Esther had been continuing her lessons with the German professor onceevery week since before Christmas. Not that he was a singing master, buthe proved to be a thoroughly trained musician who understood the pianoalmost as well as the violin, so that he was able to give Esther splendidassistance with her piano training so necessary to the singing later on.
And this he insisted on doing without payment in spite of his poverty,showing a very decided interest in Esther's possible future. In spite ofher own seriously reduced income, however, Betty had at first suggestedthat she be allowed to contribute a small sum for the lessons, but Estherhad positively refused to accept anything more than her singing lessonsfrom her friend. She explained that Herr Crippen said she rendered himsufficient aid in his other work to pay for what he was doing for her,and closing with the more truthful statement that, for a reason which hecould not now set forth, he felt particularly hopeful for _das gnaedigeFraeulein_.
And yet notwithstanding the fact that Betty was extremely grateful to himfor his kindness to Esther, from their first acquaintance she had neverbeen able to resist the inclination to make fun of the poor gentleman onevery possible occasion, in the face of Esther's open protests, that is,when it could be done without hurting his feelings. Under mostcircumstances Esther felt that Betty could do no wrong, but her jokes atthe Herr Professor's expense made Esther suffer a variety of emotionswhich she could not exactly explain even to herself. The poor man was soshabby and shy, such an apparent failure in life, without money,position, friends or family, none of the things which Betty stillconsidered absolutely essential. Though she never thought she hadbetrayed herself, in a way it is just possible that Herr Crippen was allthat winter guessing what was going on in regard to him in the back ofBetty Ashton's mind. He had a pleading, almost apologetic expression ashe gazed into her lovely face as though vaguely asking her not to be toohard in her judgment and to be kind to him if she could.
Once or twice it is just possible that he asked Miss McMurtry questionsabout her in his semi-weekly visits to the older Camp Fire guardian, butof this Betty of course had no knowledge.
It was on one Saturday night, when Miss McMurtry happened to be stayingat the cabin to afford Rose Dyer a holiday in town, that Betty'ssuspicions of a possible romance were first aroused. Promptly at eighto'clock that evening the Herr Professor, dressed in his best clothes,made his appearance at the front door, wearing a large clean collarconsiderably frayed at the ends and a flowing black silk necktie.
By chance there happened to be but a few of the Sunrise girls at homethat evening, for Mollie O'Neill was staying all night with Meg, EleanorMeade was to remain over Sunday with her mother and Nan had gone home totake her father to church the next day as he had solemnly promised to beher companion. So as Edith had not come out for her regular week-endvisit there were only the five girls in camp. However, Sylvia was sobusily engaged in seeing Faith to bed that when the Professor arrivedthere were only Betty, Polly and Esther about to be in the way. Yet halfan hour or so after his arrival and in the midst of quite an interestinggeneral conversation Herr Crippen, seeming to be overwhelmed withemotion, suddenly asked Miss McMurtry to take a walk outside with him andthis when it was not even a particularly warm or agreeable late Marchevening.
Betty was a little vexed, for they had just been talking of the old-timehistory of Woodford, of the names of some of the old families in the townand the immediate neighborhood. This was always a subject of keeninterest to Betty, as her own family, the Ashtons, had been among thefirst settlers in the village and through each generation had furnishedsome of its most distinguished men and women. Indeed, it was Betty'sgrandfather who had built the orphan asylum where Esther had lived as achild. Consequently, she felt an interest in it for her own as well asEsther's sake when Herr Crippen asked Miss McMurtry if she had not oncetaught some of the children at the asylum as a kind of practice workbefore graduating at the Normal School. And directly after this questionwhen Miss McMurtry had quietly answered, "yes," she and her Professor haddisappeared out into the moonlight.
Then immediately after this, Esther had slipped over to the piano andpresently begun playing over a new Camp Fire song, which Frank Whartonhad just sent his sister from headquarters in New York, hearing that thegirls were particularly anxious for the latest Camp Fire music. Polly,who had been rather annoyed at the interruption of a visitor, returnedonce more to the reading of her book, so that it was left to Betty, whowas in an idle mood, to wander over casually to the window and there,without the least intention of spying, behold what certainly looked likea very interesting scene.
Instead of walking up and down outside as the Professor had suggested,Herr Crippen's hands were clasped imploringly together and his face worea strangely beseeching expression. Indeed, if Betty had been near enoughshe might have seen actual tears in his eyes as there had been on theChristmas eve when he had his conversation with Esther. The very nextinstant Betty had of course turned hurriedly away, feeling ashamed ofherself for having even innocently seen what was so plainly not intendedfor her eyes. And yet at the same moment she could not restrain a giggle,a giggle which grew later on into a confession of what she had witnessed.Still as she explained it was merely a suspicion, nothing more, for Bettyhad not seen how Donna had received the Professor's suit nor did shereally know what kind of a question he had asked.
However, when a few days later Miss McMurtry actually asked for a leaveof absence from school in order to have a quiet talk alone with Rose Dyerat the cabin, what had been an idle suspicion now looked as though itmight be a reality.
Notwithstanding, the girls had to suffer for some time with ungratifiedcuriosity, since Rose made no mention even of having had an unexpectedvisit from the older woman. Indeed, she tried to go about her regularCamp Fire work from day to day as though nothing had happened, as thoughthere were nothing of special interest or importance on her mind, butthis she did not quite succeed in doing, at least not to the watchfuleyes of Betty, Esther and Polly, who were the most interested of thegirls. For Rose's face, when she supposed that no one was looking, worean expression of surprise, of uncertainty and even of worry anduneasiness.
It was odd, Betty thought, why Rose should take Miss McMurtry's loveaffair so seriously and what could there be in it to trouble over,anyhow? Either Miss Martha did or did not care for the funny old Germanwho must have been fifteen years her senior, and who certainly was not adesirable catch from a worldly point of view. It nev
er occurred to Bettythat there could be any possibility of love not running smoothly with twosuch elderly persons.
However, as Rose made no confidences, after a week had passed the wholesubject vanished into the background of everybody's minds and most of thegirls believed that the whole idea had been a mistaken one from thebeginning.
And then one afternoon in the early part of April, Rose called Bettyaside and asked her if on the following afternoon she and Esther couldmeet Miss McMurtry, Herr Crippen and herself in the drawing room at theAshton house in Woodford. There was a question which had to be discussedand it was not possible to have any privacy at the cabin. Miss Dyer's ownhouse was closed, but a caretaker had been left in charge of the Ashtonhome, as it was too beautiful a place to remain for so many monthsunguarded.