The Mandie Collection (19 page)

There was no conversation allowed at the table but Mandie said under her breath to Celia, as she put a forkful of potatoes into her mouth, “I was right.”

Celia nodded and went on eating.

As soon as the meal was over and the girls were dismissed from the table, Miss Hope hurried around to speak to the twins again. Mandie lingered again, hoping for a chance to talk to them, and then she heard Miss Hope saying “If you young ladies would please come with me. We need to make out records for you in the office.”

Miss Hope left the room with the twins following.

“Oh, shucks!” Mandie said as they were the last ones to leave the dining room.

“So their father is a diplomat,” Celia said as they walked out of the room.

“I wonder if they speak English,” Mandie said.

“They must or they couldn’t attend a school like this,” Celia said.

“Let’s go into the parlor and wait and see if they come back in there,” Mandie suggested, walking down the hall.

“And we were going to try to find out who stayed here at the school over the holidays, remember?” Celia said, catching up with her.

“Yes,” Mandie replied.

They sat in the parlor, but it seemed all the other girls were going upstairs to their rooms and no one came to join them. After a while Mandie said, “We might as well go to our room, too. I don’t believe anyone is coming in here.”

“They are probably all tired from the holiday travel,” Celia said.

Mandie looked for Miss Hope as they left the parlor and went down the hall to the center staircase, but she was nowhere in sight.

Once in their room they checked their things to see if they had been disturbed. Nothing had been moved.

They sat in the big chairs to talk awhile since it was really too early to go to bed.

“If we had been able to catch up with Miss Hope she would have told us all about those new girls,” Mandie said.

“I wonder if they will be graduating with us since they only now enrolled here,” Celia said.

“They must have been going to school somewhere, either in their country, or here in the United States,” Mandie decided.

“Do you suppose they will have identical graduation dresses?” Celia asked with a big grin.

“I would imagine so. They probably dress alike all the time,” Mandie said. “I sure hope my graduation dress is not missing or something. It wasn’t in Aunt Lou’s sewing room where it was supposed to have been so I can’t imagine who took it or where it went.”

“I would think Aunt Lou knows where it is or she would raise a fuss about the disappearance of it,” Celia said.

“I’ll be glad when graduation and all that is over with,” Mandie said. “And I hope Grandmother will take all of us to Europe.”

“I wonder if anyone knows for sure what she will do about Europe,” Celia remarked.

“No one ever knows what my grandmother is going to do next,” Mandie said with a big grin. “She likes to make mysteries out of everything.”

Mandie thought about that after she and Celia went to bed that night. If her grandmother didn’t take them to Europe, what would she be doing all summer? And her friends?

She knew she was going to feel kind of lost, having graduated from this school in the coming summer, and having to begin at a completely new school, the College of Charleston. Well, she would at least have Celia with her.

The girls at the Misses Heathwood’s School for Girls were allowed Wednesday as a free day, and classes did not begin until the Thursday after the Christmas holiday break.

Mandie woke up on Thursday to hear the rain pouring down outside. And she knew it would be a cold rain, since it was January. Therefore, she would have to spend the day inside. She groaned as she sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes.

Celia was also awake and pushed herself up on her pillow. “It’s raining,” Celia said.

“Yes, and I had hoped the girls would be coming in and out and we’d have a chance to see the twins again, and also a chance to try to figure out who was in our room while we were gone,” Mandie replied, sliding off the big bed.

Celia looked at the clock and replied, “But it’s early, Mandie. It’s only twenty minutes till seven. We have time, if we hurry, to get downstairs and see who else is around before we have to go in for breakfast at seven-thirty.”

“Yes, let’s hurry,” Mandie replied, rushing over to the wardrobe to find a dress. Celia followed.

They hurriedly dressed and only took time to place their hairbrushes and combs on the bureau in a position that they would know if they were bothered by anyone while they were out of the room.

Downstairs they only found Polly, who was sitting in the same place she had sat the night before. Polly didn’t look at them as they crossed the parlor and sat on a settee.

“Do you think she might have spent the night down here in that chair?” Mandie asked with a big grin.

“Of course not, Mandie,” Celia whispered back. “Why would she do that?”

“You know that she does a lot of things other people don’t do, like trying to break the lock open on our tunnel that time,” Mandie said, glancing at Polly, who was too far away in the huge parlor to hear them.

April Snow came into the parlor and sat down on the other side of the room.

Mandie had learned April was a strange person, sometimes friendly and sometimes not speaking, for no reason at all. She decided to see if the girl would reply as she looked across the room at her and asked, “Did you go home for Christmas, April?”

April quickly pushed her black hair back from her face, shrugged her shoulders, and answered, “Of course I went home. Didn’t you go, too?”

“Yes, and Celia went home with me. We just got back here Tuesday,” Mandie replied.

April didn’t say anything to that.

Mandie took a deep breath and asked, “When did you get back?”

“When did I get back?” April repeated. “Now, what business of yours is that? I got back before you did and also before those two foreigners from Italy showed up. And I’m glad I’ll be graduating in May because it looks like the old ladies are going to turn it into a school for just anybody.”

Mandie took a deep breath. April didn’t usually say that much at one time. She must really be upset with the foreigners being admitted to the school.

“I think we ought to be nice to those girls,” Celia spoke up. “They are visitors in our country.”

Mandie tried to trick April into an answer about her return to school. “Did you say you came back to school on Monday? That would have been a day ahead of us.”

“I did not say any such thing,” April said, angrily rising and hurrying out of the room.

As she went out, the twins came into the parlor. Mandie looked across the room, smiled, and said, “Good morning.”

The girls smiled back but kept walking right on through the parlor and out the door on the far side, which led into a smaller parlor.

“Well,” Mandie muttered under breath.

Some of the other girls came into the room, among them Mary Lou, a girl who had always been friendly but never friends with Mandie and Celia. However, now she walked on over to sit in front of Mandie and Celia on a chair and remarked, “It must be wonderful to have a grandmother like yours, Mandie, who is going to take you and all your friends to Europe this coming summer.”

“To Europe?” Mandie quickly asked. “Who told you my grandmother was going to take us to Europe?”

Mary Lou pushed back her long red hair and replied, “Why, everyone here at school knows about that. Was it supposed to be a secret or something?”

Mandie quickly cleared her throat and answered, “No, of course not. It’s just that I didn’t know you knew my grandmother that well to be getting information like that.” She glanced at Celia.

“Oh, I didn’t get the information from your grandmother. I overheard her talking to Miss Prudence when she brought you girls back to school,” Mary Lou replied. “I heard her say that she is taking you and all your friends. I hope that includes me.” She smiled at Mandie.

“Do you not have any plans for the summer?” Celia asked.

“Oh, I have plans all right, but they could all be changed to get a chance to go to Europe. My parents could never afford to take me on such a trip. I do hope you appreciate your grandmother’s interest in you and your friends,” Mary Lou said. “I don’t have any grandparents. They’re all dead.”

“Oh, yes, I do love my grandmother,” Mandie replied, and then feeling sorry for the girl, she added, “I’m not sure how many of my friends my grandmother intends taking but I’ll let you know if we have room for one more.” She smiled.

“Oh, thank you, Mandie,” Mary Lou quickly answered. “I’ll be your friend forever.” She grinned as she tossed back her long hair.

“Does my grandmother know your parents?” Mandie asked.

“No, of course not, but they know who she is. Everyone knows who Mrs. Taft is, with all her ships and money,” Mary Lou said.

Mandie couldn’t decide how to respond to that and finally said, “She is a wonderful grandmother. I’m glad she’s mine.”

All the other girls in the school had come into the parlor and the surrounding halls. The bell in the backyard began ringing for breakfast.

Mandie and Celia stood up. “I’ll let you know as soon as I can,” Mandie promised Mary Lou as everyone got into line.

Mary Lou’s seat was on the opposite side of the dining room from Mandie’s. As they separated in line Mandie whispered to Celia, “Do you suppose she is making all that up about Grandmother taking us to Europe?”

“I don’t think so, Mandie. How would she know about that?” Celia whispered back.

Mandie didn’t know much about Mary Lou and was trying to figure out how she could really find out if her grandmother had said that to Miss Prudence. And then she figured her grandmother must have, as Celia said, otherwise how would Mary Lou know anything about a possible trip to Europe with her grandmother?

“Oh, why won’t Grandmother tell me something?” Mandie whispered to Celia as they came to their designated chairs and stood there waiting for Miss Hope to ask the blessing.

As soon as breakfast was over, Mandie and Celia walked down the hall toward the office, where Miss Prudence stayed.

“If I can find Miss Prudence I will just ask her what my grandmother said about going to Europe,” Mandie told Celia as they neared the open doorway.

Mandie looked inside and saw that Miss Prudence was sitting at her desk. The lady looked up, smiled, and said, “Come on in, young ladies. I’ve just finished what I was doing here. Sit down.”

Mandie entered the room and sat in a straight chair, and Celia took the one beside her. Miss Prudence only had the bare essentials for running a school. She didn’t believe in luxurious offices.

“Good morning, Miss Prudence,” Mandie began.

The lady quickly said, “I’m so glad you are going back to Europe with your grandmother this summer, and I understand she is taking all your friends. Why, she even asked Miss Hope and me, but of course we can’t take time off like that from the school. I’m sure you are going to have a very educational journey with your grandmother to supervise it.” She paused to take a breath. “Now, what can I do for you young ladies?”

Mandie and Celia looked at each other and grinned.

“Well, you see, Miss Prudence, my grandmother has not told me yet that we are definitely going. Then Mary Lou spoke to us about it so I decided to ask you about it,” Mandie said, feeling as though she was jumbling up her words.

Miss Prudence smiled at Mandie and said, “You don’t know about it?” Then she said, “That’s just the way your grandmother does things. She’ll get around to telling you about it in her own good time, I’m sure.”

“But all my friends want to know so they can arrange their vacations for summer,” Mandie said.

“This is only January, dear,” Miss Prudence reminded her. “You have plenty of time before your graduation in May to make plans.” She stood up and added, “Now, I have some business to attend to.”

Mandie and Celia also quickly rose.

“Yes, ma’am, thank you for telling me,” Mandie said as she and Celia started out the door. She turned back to ask, “Miss Prudence, will those girls from Italy be graduating with us in May, or are they in lower classes?”

“Yes, they will be graduating with you. And I must say they have an excellent education already,” Miss Prudence replied. “Have you met them?”

“Oh, yes, ma’am, and they seem to be very nice,” Mandie told her. Then, looking back one more time as she stood in the doorway, she asked, “Maybe you could find some time to go with us yourself to Europe.”

“I see no time right now, thank you, dear,” Miss Prudence replied, and began picking up papers on her desk.

Mandie and Celia walked back down the hall toward the main staircase.

“I was going to say let’s go back to our room and get our books for our first class and then come down here and wait so we can see everyone going and coming. Maybe someone else will stop to tell us we are going to Europe with my grandmother,” Mandie said, grinning.

As they climbed the main staircase Celia said, “You know, Mandie, I have a feeling that your grandmother has been keeping the trip to Europe a secret so she could surprise you with it for graduation.”

Mandie paused to look at her friend and replied, “Maybe, but she knows all my friends have to make plans for the summer and she should at least let them know.”

Celia grinned at her and replied, “Maybe they all know already.”

Mandie stomped her foot as they stood on the staircase. “Don’t you dare tell me that you and all my friends have known about this trip all along and I’m the only ignorant one in the bunch.”

“Mandie, please don’t let anyone know I told you, but Mrs. Taft has organized this trip with all our parents—mine, Joe’s, Jonathan’s, Sallie’s, and everyone’s, and she asked that we keep it secret because it was to be a surprise graduation present to you,” Celia explained.

Mandie clenched her fists and stomped her foot again. “Well, she certainly managed to make me look like a dumb idiot.”

“Come on, let’s get our books,” Celia reminded her as she started on up the stairs.

In their room the girls grabbed their books for their morning classes and then quickly returned downstairs. They sat in the parlor again. Most of the students were already attending other classes and no one came to join them.

After the two morning classes, everyone got in line again, this time for the noonday meal. Mandie noticed that no one seemed to meet her eyes as she looked around at the other girls. Now she knew they were hiding a secret, but it was no longer a secret from her and she intended to have a talk with her grandmother. This situation had turned out to be embarrassing, being the last one to know what her own grandmother was planning.

Mandie felt uncomfortable with the other girls, and then a few days later something happened that caused her attention to revert to another matter.

The mailman for the neighborhood always delivered mail to the school immediately after noontime each day. And on Friday he brought an important letter to Celia as she and Mandie sat in the alcove looking out into the wintry front yard.

“A special one for you, Miss Hamilton,” the postman told her as they waited in the front hallway while he took the mail for the school out of his bag.

“For me?” Celia asked as he handed her a large white envelope.

Mandie quickly looked over her shoulder. “Celia, that’s from the College of Charleston. Quick, see what it is.”

The two moved back into the alcove and sat down. Celia opened the envelope and withdrew a business letter. Her eyes grew big as she read it and said, “Here, read this. The college received my application too late and they can’t accept me.”

“What!” Mandie practically screamed as she took the letter and read it. “Celia, didn’t you turn in your application about the same time I did?”

“Well, yes, I suppose. I actually gave it to my mother to mail,” Celia explained.

“And she didn’t get it mailed in time. Oh, Celia, what are we going to do? I can’t go without you,” Mandie moaned.

“I’ll have to get word to my mother about this,” Celia said, her eyes brimming with tears. “Oh, Mandie, I’m so sorry.”

Mandie straightened up and said firmly, “My grandmother can fix anything. We’ll just take this letter to her and see if she can change their minds, that’s what we will do, this weekend.” Mandie smiled at her.

“But Mandie, it won’t do any good to change their minds if they are already filled up. There still wouldn’t be any room for me,” Celia replied.

“They’ll make room when my grandmother talks to them.”

The girls heard the mailman come back inside.

“Miss Hamilton, sorry, but I have another letter for you that I overlooked,” he said, looking around the hall as the girls came out of the alcove.

Celia took the letter. “Thank you,” she said.

As they went back inside the alcove Celia said, “Look, Mandie, this letter is from the University of Virginia. Remember I applied there, also, and I never did tell them I wanted to cancel out.” She quickly opened the letter. “And they have accepted me.” She waved the letter at Mandie, smiling.

“But Celia, that doesn’t solve anything. I didn’t apply to the University of Virginia and I’m sure it’s too late now,” Mandie replied.

“I don’t know, Mandie, but they would probably make room for you if you wanted to go since I am accepted there already,” Celia replied.

“Celia, this is one big mess,” Mandie said with a sigh. “This is one time I’ll be glad to ask for Grandmother’s help.”