<h2 id="c14"><br/>CHAPTER XIV <br/><span class="sc">Mollie’s Confidant</span></h2>
<p>Of her visit to Miss Adams, Polly
never afterwards spoke, except to
Betty and her sister Mollie, asking
that they tell Rose Dyer that it was right
that she as their guardian should know and
promising to write her mother; however,
several of the other Camp Fire girls believed
that they saw a slight change in Polly
dating from her visit. Afterwards she
never seemed to give up, at least without
some struggle, to her old, utterly unreasonable
changes of mood.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_157">[157]</div>
<p>To Betty and Mollie, however, Polly
confessed that, although Miss Adams had
been kind beyond her wildest dreams,
she had not said that she had seen any
evidences of genius or even of marked
ability in her interrupted dramatic efforts;
although she had suggested that only the
most remarkable people the world has ever
known have betrayed exceptional gifts at
the age of sixteen, that most people only
achieve success by endless patience, faith
and work and by what sometimes looks at
first like failure. She had then told Polly
something of her own early struggle, but
this Polly of course did not reveal even to
her sister and dearest friend. However, to
Mollie’s relief, she did announce that she
meant to spend the next two years in doing
everything she could for her health by
obeying every single Camp Fire rule, that
she meant to learn more self-control, to
study harder and also to memorize all the
plays and poems that she possibly could.
For at the close of her graduation at the
High School the wonderful Miss Adams had
asked that Polly write her and then if her
mother was willing, if Polly was well and
of the same desire, she would see that she
had an opportunity for the kind of study she
would then need should she adopt the stage
for her profession. For the truth is that
though the great actress had not been
particularly impressed by Polly’s acting she
had discovered two things about her, one
that she had the expressive face with quick
mobile features and the graceful carriage
more to be desired on the stage than either
beauty or stateliness and, moreover, like
most other people, she had taken a decided
fancy to the girl herself.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_158">[158]</div>
<p>For a few weeks following Polly’s famous
interview her sister Mollie found herself
and Polly farther apart in sympathy than
they had ever been before in their lives.
Under nearly all other circumstances Mollie
had always allowed herself to be influenced
by her twin sister’s wishes; Polly had
always seemed to want things so much
harder than other people that she and her
mother had usually been willing enough
to give in, but now on this question of
Polly’s going upon the stage after she had
finished her education Mollie made up
her mind to stand firm in her opposition
at every possible opportunity, even if her
mother should give in to Polly’s persuasion.
It was utterly impossible for Mollie O’Neill
to understand her twin sister’s restlessness
and ambition. How could she ever wish
to leave her home and mother, to leave <i>her</i>,
to follow after such a will-o’-the-wisp?</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_159">[159]</div>
<p>It was in vain that Polly explained that
it was no lack of affection on her part,
that she surely loved her own people as
much as they could love her, but that she
felt she must see more of the world, live a
wider life than Woodford could give her.
Mollie was always obdurate. There was
only one way by which Polly could silence
her twin and that was to inquire if Mollie
meant always to stay at home, to remain
an old maid? And when Mollie most
indignantly denied any such suggestion,
Polly would then ask how if she loved them
could she make up her mind to go away
from home on account of a strange man,
and if a career wasn’t as good as a husband,
until Mollie became too indignant and
unhappy for argument and usually by
making no further replies carried off the
honors of war.</p>
<p>If only Mollie could have had another
girl to unbosom herself to, but there was
no one; Polly had asked her not to discuss
her affairs with any one of the Camp Fire
girls except Betty Ashton, and Betty openly
sympathized with Polly. Having no gifts
herself she used to say that all she could do
would be to live in the successes of Polly
and Esther; although Polly used always
to assure her in return that a Princess was
above the possession of small abilities like
ordinary mortals, and Esther that she never
expected to have any success beyond learning
to sing well enough to make her own
living and perhaps some day to have a
position in a Woodford church choir.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_160">[160]</div>
<p>So Mollie for the month succeeding
Christmas kept most of her worry to herself,
and to the entire Sunrise Camp Fire
club’s surprise and consternation grew quite
unlike her usually sweet-tempered, happy
self. Sometimes she used to insist upon
taking the daily exercise prescribed by the
Camp Fire rules entirely alone, if she were
allowed, in order that she might think up
some possible way of influencing Polly to
give up her wholly foolish ambition. Since
Polly felt that she must do something
toward supporting her mother and herself,
she should try to learn to be a teacher like
Miss McMurtry or Miss Mary Adams.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_161">[161]</div>
<p>One Saturday afternoon, being particularly
low in her mind because Rose Dyer
had thought Polly not very well and had
suggested that she stay at home and take
her walk outside the cabin with the newest
Camp Fire girl, Mollie had deliberately
stolen off while her friends were getting
ready for a hard tramp through the woods.
She did not care at the time that their
guardian might object to her going off alone.
She almost hoped that something might
happen to her to make Polly feel uneasy.
Since Polly was always making her perfectly
miserable why she might as well experience
the sensation occasionally herself. So,
knowing that the other girls were to strike
out through the pine woods, find the road
and walk over toward the asylum to escort
Esther home (who was now having a weekly
music lesson with Herr Crippen), Mollie
first walked back of the cabin and then
found the road through the Webster farm.
She didn’t walk very far however. It was
perfectly ridiculous of her of course to
anticipate trouble, and yet somehow she
felt that she and Polly were never going to
be just the same that they had been in the
past to one another, in some way they
would be separated. Suddenly Mollie felt
a wave of homesickness, of longing for her
mother such as she had not felt since the
first few weeks after Mrs. O’Neill’s sailing
for Ireland the spring before. So quite
unmindful of consequences Mollie dropped
down on the stump of a tree, deliberately
giving herself up to the enjoyment of tears.
It was so utterly impossible ever to cry at
the cabin. Some one was always about
seeing you and besides all the other Camp
Fire girls Mollie solemnly believed to have
outgrown the foolish weakness of crying,
it was so utterly in contradiction to all
their training.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_162">[162]</div>
<p>The tears, however, must have been
extremely near the surface, since they dried
so instantly, and Mollie jumped to her feet
indignantly when a hard ball of snow went
whizzing past her ear, almost striking her.
A moment later she heard footsteps coming
up behind her.</p>
<p>“Hope you won’t mind my appearing
to pay off old scores in this way; I really
had no idea of hitting you, but I had to
attract your attention in some fashion, so
you wouldn’t run away from me,” said a
voice Mollie immediately recognized and a
moment later Billy Webster appeared by
her side. “Would any one in the world except
Miss Polly O’Neill seat herself calmly
on a stump in the midst of the winter
woods with nothing but snow and ice
all about her as if she were in the lap
of spring?” he asked. And then, when
Mollie made no answer and catching just
a side glance at her downcast face, he
puckered his lips as though intending to
whistle, but better manners prevailing said
as sympathetically as he could: “Dear me,
Miss Polly, you look as though you were
desperately unhappy over something or
other. What is it that is troubling you
this time?”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_163">[163]</div>
<p>Mollie was wearing a long brown coat
exactly like Polly’s red one and her brown
tam-o’-shanter she had pulled down as low
as possible over her face because of the cold
January wind, but now she turned with
some indignation toward her companion.
“I am not Polly,” she announced with a
good deal of vexation (the twin sisters
never liked being taken for one another).
“I am sorry, but I suppose Polly hasn’t a
monopoly of all the trouble in this world.
Or at least she very often passes it on to
other people.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_164">[164]</div>
<p>Instantly Billy’s fur cap was off, showing
his heavy hair, which was browner than
during the months of exposure to the summer
sun, but although his face was also
less tanned, his eyes were as blue and as
full of humor as ever.</p>
<p>“It is I who am sorry and glad too,
Miss Mollie,” he answered as gallantly as
possible. “It seems to be my fate everlastingly
to put my foot in it with both you
and your sister. I could have sworn not
long ago that I would never again mistake
you for one another and here I am at it
again. But you will forgive me this time.
You see you don’t look quite like yourself
to-day; you are so much paler and kind
of uncertain looking—and cross. But now
I beg the other Miss O’Neill’s pardon,”
and Billy laughed, not so much as though
he cared a great deal about having made
fun of Polly, but more in order to cheer up
Mollie.</p>
<p>“Better not let Polly hear you say that,”
she returned, smiling a little. “You know,
like the tiger in ‘Little Black Sambo,’ she
would have to eat you up. But Polly is
really a great deal better tempered than I
am and sweeter than anything nowadays;
ask anybody in camp. It is I who am the
cross one. And it is all because I am so
unhappy.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_165">[165]</div>
<p>And then, to Mollie’s own surprise and
Billy’s decided embarrassment, she began
crying a great deal harder than before.</p>
<p>There was nothing a fellow could do but
just to stand there and watch her for a
moment and then Billy had a feeble inspiration.
He tucked her arm through his
comfortingly. “Come, it is getting dark,
these days are so dreadfully short. Let
me walk on back to the cabin with you.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_166">[166]</div>
<p>And on the way Mollie discovered herself
unexpectedly confiding everything that
troubled her about her sister to this comparatively
unknown boy friend. Although
the Camp Fire girls had seen more of
Billy Webster than any one else because
of their living so near his father’s farm.
For the first few minutes Mollie felt she
might regret her outburst, but not for long,
for to her satisfaction and indeed to her
very real consolation, Billy felt exactly
as she did about Polly. It was utterly
absurd for Polly to talk about going away
from Woodford even to study for the stage;
she was not strong enough; the life was a
perfectly abominable one for a lady, but
for a delicate high-strung girl like Polly
O’Neill it was worse than absurd; it was
wicked! Mollie should write for her mother
to come home to prevent Polly’s getting the
idea more firmly fixed in her mind. Later
on it might be more difficult to influence her.
Billy Webster fairly spluttered with indignation.
His mother was a perfect farmer’s
wife, devoted to her husband, to her son
and a younger daughter, and to the life
and work of her farm and very naturally
Billy’s mother was his ideal. He liked the
two O’Neill girls very much, had known of
their struggle to get along and of their
mother’s efforts to give them an education,
and believed, like Mollie, that it was ungrateful
of Polly to wish to leave her home
so soon as she was grown up. Besides
he did not like to see Mollie so worried!
What a strangely difficult person Polly
was! There were times when he felt
that he almost hated her and then again
she was rather fascinating.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_167">[167]</div>
<p>“I have got about half as much influence
with your sister as that totem pole,” he
announced, when he had brought Mollie
almost back to the Sunrise cabin, “but
if there is anything I can ever do to help
you make her change her mind, why count
on me up to the limit. Don’t you think
the best thing would be somehow to joke
the whole idea out of her? She is just the
kind of a person to be more influenced by
joking than any real opposition.”</p>
<p>Mollie bowed her head in entire agreement.
“Yes, but what kind of a joke
could we ever think up that could have
anything to do with Polly’s wishing to be
an actress and meaning to study several
years from now?” she inquired doubtfully.</p>
<p>And to do Billy Webster credit he did
look considerably confused.</p>
<p>“Well, I can’t say right off,” he confessed,
laughing a little at himself, “but if
you and I think things over for a week or
so, perhaps an inspiration may come to
one or the other of us. And in the meantime,”
he added this rather hastily, “I
wouldn’t mention to your sister that you
have spoken of her plans to me. It is
all right though, for I shall never breathe
what you have told me to any one.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_168">[168]</div>
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