<h2 id="c17">CHAPTER XVII <br/><span class="small">AT THE PLAY</span></h2>
<p>But little light was thrown on the disappearance
of Tavia through any information Dorothy
could obtain from Grace Barnum. In fact that
young lady was quite as puzzled as was Dorothy,
and when told that Tavia was not to be found at
home a few days previous (this being within the
time when Tavia had left Buffalo ostensibly for
her residence in Dalton), Miss Barnum wanted to
communicate immediately with the missing girl’s
parents.</p>
<p>Nat, with kind consideration, had declined to
step inside when Dorothy called at the Barnum
home. He thought he might better give the two
young ladies a chance to discuss the situation alone,
and so, under pretense of strolling through the little
park opposite the house, left Grace and Dorothy
together.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_162">[162]</div>
<p>It took the girls but a moment to arrive at the
same point of interest. Grace showed keenest
anxiety when Dorothy inquired for Tavia, for she
had fears of her own—since her friend’s visit.</p>
<p>“I must write at once,” she insisted. “What
would Mrs. Travers think of me if anything happened
to Tavia?”</p>
<p>“But I have already begun a letter,” stated
Dorothy, truthfully enough, “so perhaps I had
better make the inquiry. You know how excitable
Mrs. Travers is. Perhaps I could write without
causing her any alarm, whereas she would
surely expect you to know whether or not Tavia
was home. I haven’t the slightest doubt but that
she is home—now,” Dorothy hastened to add.
“I am expecting her at North Birchland any day.”</p>
<p>This had the effect of putting Grace at her ease.
Of course, she reflected, Tavia might even be at
the Cedars now, as her mother had given her permission
to go about almost as she wished, and she
had expected to pay a number of visits to friends,
no special time being set for them. This Grace
knew for she had seen a letter to that effect from
Mrs. Travers to Tavia.</p>
<p>“You see,” said Dorothy, rising to go, “they
have always given Tavia so much her own way.
She has been—well, sort of superior to the others
at home. That, I think, is a real mistake, for a
girl is expected to know more of the world and
its ways than is consistent with her actual experience.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_163">[163]</div>
<p>“Exactly,” admitted Grace. “That is what I
thought once when Tavia acted so—well so self-reliant.
I do hope she is safe at home. You will
let me know, won’t you Dorothy? I may call you
that, mayn’t I? I feel as if I had known you for
a long time, as Tavia has talked so much about
you.”</p>
<p>So the two girls parted, and Dorothy’s heart
seemed to grow heavier at each new turn in her
quest for the missing one.</p>
<p>“Why should Tavia act so?” she asked herself
over and over again, as she walked along
with Nat who tried to cheer her up.</p>
<p>“If you don’t stop worrying, Doro,” he counseled
as he noted the look of anxiety on her face,
“you’ll be a sick girl ’way out here in Buffalo.”</p>
<p>“I’m going to be excused from the party to-night,”
she answered. “I really have a headache,
and I must have time to write some letters.”</p>
<p>“Great headache cure—letter writing. But
I suppose you’ll not rest until you sift this matter
to the very bottom. And, to be honest, Doro, I
can’t say I blame you. I’d give a whole lot, right
now, to know where the wily Tavia tarries.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_164">[164]</div>
<p>As discreetly as she could, Dorothy wrote the
letter to Mrs. Travers to ask the mooted question.
She did not say she had been to Grace Barnum’s,
but simply inquired for Tavia’s address. On an
early mail the next day (a remarkable thing for
Mrs. Travers to answer a letter so promptly)
came the reply that Tavia was at the Barnums!
There was some other news of Dalton in the
epistle, but that concerning Tavia, which her mother
had apparently set down as a matter of fact,
stood out prominently from all the rest.</p>
<p>In spite of her fears, when the letter presented
the actual fact that Tavia was not at home, and,
as Dorothy knew she was not at Grace’s, it came
like a shock to the girl already in a highly nervous
state because of what she had gone through.
Hoping against hope she had clung to the slim
possibility that some explanation might come from
Dalton, but now even this was shattered.</p>
<p>One thing Dorothy quickly decided upon. She
must have another talk with Alma Mason, and she
must be careful not to excite suspicion as to the
real purpose of the conversation.</p>
<p>Realizing at once that she must now move cautiously
in the matter, for the slightest intimation
that Tavia was away from home and friends, without
either the latter or relatives having a clue to
her whereabouts, would be sure to ruin Tavia’s
reputation, Dorothy now determined that even Nat
should not know of her plans for continuing the
search.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_165">[165]</div>
<p>How hopeless Dorothy felt all alone in such a
work! But find Tavia she must, and to find her
very soon she felt was imperative, for, even in Buffalo,
with her friends, Dorothy could see the
dangers of a large city to an unprotected and unsuspecting
young girl.</p>
<p>But the boys were going back to North Birchland
the next day! How could Dorothy act in
time to get to Rochester? For to Rochester she felt
that she now must go. Everything pointed to the
fact that Tavia was either there, or that there a
clue to her whereabouts could be obtained.</p>
<p>On taking her morning walk alone, for Rose-Mary
was a little indisposed, after the party of
the evening previous, Dorothy met Miss Mason.
It was not difficult to renew the conversation concerning
Tavia. Bit by bit Alma told of Tavia’s
infatuation for the stage, until Dorothy became
more than ever convinced that it was in theatrical
surroundings that the missing girl would be found.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_166">[166]</div>
<p>Mrs. Markin had planned a little theatre party
for Rose-Mary and some of her Buffalo friends
that afternoon. The play was one especially interesting
to young girls—a drama built on lines,
showing how one ambitious girl succeeded in the
world with nothing but a kind heart and a worthy
purpose to start with. It abounded in scenes of
rural home life, wholesome and picturesque, and
one of the features, most conspicuous in the advertising
on the billboards was that of the character
Katherine, the heroine, holding a neighborhood
meeting in a cornfield, among the laborers during
the noon hour. The girl appeared in the posters
perched upon a water barrel and from that pulpit
in the open she, as the daughter of a blind chair
caner, won hearts to happiness with the gospel of
brotherly love—the new religion of the poor and
the oppressed.</p>
<p>While Rose-Mary and Alma enthused over the
prospect of a particularly pleasant afternoon, Dorothy
seemed nervous, and it was with some misgivings
that she finally agreed to attend the party
that was really arranged for her special entertainment.
The boys, Ned, Nat and Jack were going,
of course, and to make the affair complete Rose-Mary
had also invited Grace Barnum.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_167">[167]</div>
<p>Grace was a particularly bright girl, the sort
that cares more for books than pretty clothes, and
who had the temerity to wear her hair parted directly
in the middle in the very wildest of pompadour
days. Not that Grace lacked beauty, for she
was of the classic type that seems to defy nationality
to such an extent, that it might be a matter of
most uncertain guess to say to what country her
ancestors had belonged.</p>
<p>This “neutrality” was a source of constant delight
to Grace, for each new friend would undertake
to assign her to a different country, and so she
felt quite like the “real thing in Cosmopolitan
types” as she expressed it. The fact, however,
might have been accounted for by the incident of
Grace having been born under missionary skies in
China. Her mother was an American blond, her
father a dark foreigner of French and Spanish ancestry
and, with all this there was in the Barnum
family a distinct strain, of Puritan stock, from
which the name Barnum came. Grace, being distinctly
different from other girls, no doubt attracted
Tavia to her, and now, when received among
Tavia’s friends she was welcomed with marked attention
that at once established a bond of friendship
between her and the other girls.</p>
<p>The boys, naturally, were not slow to “discover
her” so that, altogether, the little matinee party,
when it had reached the theatre, was a very merry
throng of young people. Mrs. Markin acted as
chaperone and, five minutes before the time set
for the play to begin Dorothy and her friends sat
staring at the green fire-proof curtain from a
roomy box. Dorothy was like one in a dream.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_168">[168]</div>
<p>All about her the others were eagerly waiting,
looking the while at the programmes, but Dorothy
sat there with the pink leaflet lying unheeded in
her lap.</p>
<p>“How much that picture of Katherine resembles
Tavia,” was the thought that disturbed her.
“The same hair—the same eyes—what if it
should be she?”</p>
<p>The curtain was swaying to and fro as those behind
it brushed past in their preparations for the
presentation of “Katherine, the Chair Caner’s
Daughter.”</p>
<p>Dorothy’s heart beat wildly when she fancied
Tavia amid such scenes—Tavia the open-hearted
girl, the little Dalton “wild flower” as Dorothy
liked to call her. Surely no stage heroine could
be more heroic than she had always been in her
role of shedding happiness on all who came within
her sphere of life.</p>
<p>Suddenly Rose-Mary turned to Nat and remarked:</p>
<p>“How Tavia would enjoy this.” She looked
around on the gay scene as the theatre was filling
up. “What a pity we could not bring her with
us for the good time.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_169">[169]</div>
<p>Dorothy felt her face flush as Nat made some
irrelevant reply. Jack turned directly to Dorothy
and, noting her inattention to the programme
opened his to point out some of the items of interest.</p>
<p>But still Dorothy stared nervously at the big asbestos
curtain and made feeble efforts to answer
her companion’s questions. Even Mrs. Markin
observed Dorothy’s rather queer manner, and she,
too, showed concern that her daughter’s guest
should be ill at ease.</p>
<p>“Aren’t you well, dear?” she asked quietly.</p>
<p>Dorothy fumbled with a lace flounce on her
sleeve.</p>
<p>“Yes,” she answered, “but there is so much to
see and think about.” She felt as if she were
apologizing. “I am not accustomed to city theatres,”
she added.</p>
<p>Then the orchestra broke into the opening number,
and presently a flash of light across the curtain
told that the players were ready to begin.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_170">[170]</div>
<p>The introductory scenes were rather of an amateur
order—a poor country home—the blind
chair caner at work, and his more or less amusing
customers. One flashily-dressed woman wanted
him to put a rush bottom in a chair that had belonged
to her grandmother, but absolutely refused
to pay even the very low price the caner asked for
the work. She wanted it as cheaply as though
rush bottoms could be made by machinery. He
was poor and needed work but he could not accept
her terms.</p>
<p>The woman in a red silk gown, with a bewildering
shower of veils floating about her, did not gain
any applause for her part in the play. Dorothy
noted that even on the stage undesirable persons
do not please, and that the assumed character is
taken into account as well as their acting.</p>
<p>It was when the blind man sat alone at his door
step, with his sightless eyes raised pitifully to the
inviting sunset, that the pretty Katherine came
skipping into view across the footlights.</p>
<p>Instinctively Nat reached out and, without being
observed grasped Dorothy’s hand. “How
like Tavia!” he mused, while Dorothy actually
seemed to stop breathing. From that moment to
the very end of the play Nat and Dorothy shared
the same thought—it might be Tavia. The others
had each remarked the resemblance, but, being
more interested in the drama than in the whereabouts
of Dorothy’s chum (whom they had no
occasion to worry about for they did not know the
circumstances,) they merely dwelt on it as a passing
thought—they were interested in what happened
to the chair caner’s daughter.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_171">[171]</div>
<p>At last every member of the company found
some excuse to get on the stage, and then the end
was reached, and the curtain went down while the
throng hurried out, seemingly indifferent to the desire
of the actors to show themselves again as the
curtain shot up for a final display of the last scene.</p>
<p>The Markin party was to go to a restaurant
for ice-cream, and so hurried from the box. Dorothy
drifted along with them for a few moments,
and then again that one thought came to her, overwhelming
her.</p>
<p>“What if that should really be Tavia?”</p>
<p>She had but a moment to act, then, when the
crowd pressed closer and there was difficulty in
walking because of the blockade, Dorothy slipped
back, stepped out of her place, and was at once
swallowed up in a sea of persons.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_172">[172]</div>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />
1 of 2
2 of 2
Previous
Next
Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.