CHAPTER XXVIII
BEAUTIFUL BEULAH
Nan did not know very much about it. She had a dreamy remembrance of the first day or two of her sojourn in what the girls called "the sick bay."
She remembered Dr. Larry's kind face leaning above her; and she realized that he was there a great deal at first.
The fact was, the physician made a hard fight to ward off the threatened attack of pneumonia that he feared. Nan had been in a receptive state for sudden illness when she slipped into the icy water that morning--worried in mind, and having eaten little for several meals.
Then was added to this the mental shock of Linda's accusation.
Her mind wandered, and Dr. Prescott and Mrs. Cupp heard a great deal about a "black ghost" and a "boy in black" who were trying to get Linda Riggs' necklace away from Nan. This troubled the girl greatly in her first delirium.
Then she wandered to Scotland and took up the burden of her parents'
financial troubles. She tried to get them home on the boat, but they had no tickets, and the captain would not trust them for their passage.
These and many other imaginary troubles helped to confuse the poor girl's mind.
But finally the delirium settled into one thing. Nan wanted Beulah!
At first the principal thought she meant _her_. Dr. Prescott knew, of course, that her girls called her in affection "Dr. Beulah." She came to the bedside as often as Nan cried out the name. But soon it was apparent that the principal's kind and beautiful face did not assuage Nan's longing.
The girl talked intimately to "Beautiful Beulah" about "Momsey" and "Papa Sherwood." "If we were only back, all together again, in the little dwelling in amity," weakly cried the sick girl. "Oh, Beulah! I haven't been nice to you. I've been ashamed of you! I was afraid of what the girls would say, and that Mrs. Cupp would think I was a baby."
"What can the poor child mean?" demanded the worried principal, of the matron. "Dr. Larry says that this worrying over the mysterious 'Beulah'
is doing her more harm than anything else."
Mrs. Cupp's face was very grim. She was not a sympathetic looking woman at best. Now she looked more severe than ever. She marched out of the sick room without a word. She had already removed from about Nan's neck the fine gold chain and key. In a few minutes she marched in again, to Dr. Prescott's unbounded surprise, and laid a wonderful, big, pink-cheeked doll beside Nan in the bed.
Mrs. Cupp, it seems, had a pretty exact knowledge of everything hidden at the bottom of the girls' trunks, after all.
When Nan aroused the next time, there was Beautiful Beulah right in the crook of her arm. She smiled, hugged the doll close to her, took her medicine without a murmur, and went at once to sleep again.
"Poor little girl," said good Dr. Larry when he was told about it. "Of course that wasn't what has been really troubling her, Dr. Prescott. But the doll is connected with a happier time, when she was at home with her absent parents. With that wax beauty in her possession all troubles look smaller to her youthful mind."
"I did think Nancy Sherwood was too big for doll-babies!" sniffed Mrs.
Cupp, refusing to show any further tenderness.
"I can see how she feels," said Dr. Prescott, understandingly. "I'm tempted to play with that beautiful thing myself. Nancy loves babies, and is as kind as she can be to the smaller girls. It would not hurt some of the girls older than she if they 'played dolls' again. They are altogether too grown-up."
Bess was at the door of the sick room morning, noon and night. As soon as the physician said there was no danger, Nan's chum was allowed in the room. When she saw the big doll on the pillow beside Nan's head, she uttered a large, round "O!"
"Didn't you ever see it before, Elizabeth?" asked the principal, curiously.
"Oh--why! It's Beautiful Beulah! Beg pardon, Dr. Prescott! it isn't named after you. Nan had it ever so many years ago. My! I never suspected it was in existence. And to bring it to school with her! My!"
Nan's vitality brought her out of the "sick bay" in a short time. She lost only a week from her books altogether. That, she told herself, did not so much matter when her time at Lakeview Hall was to be so short.
But she was faithful, and hurried to make up the lost recitations. Linda Riggs was in retirement, disgraced before the whole school. She had been obliged to publicly deny the story she had started about Nan Sherwood and the lost necklace. And, too, the necklace had been sent by registered post to Mr. Riggs with a sharp letter from Dr. Prescott reminding him that the girls of Lakeview Hall were not allowed to wear such jewelry.
Some of the girls were inclined to poke fun at Nan's big doll, which was brought up into Room Seven, Corridor Four, and given a place of honor there. But it was gentle fun, for the whole school was sorry for Nan now. They knew that she must leave the Hall at the end of the term because of financial reverses, and the girls were beginning to find out how lovable she was, and to remember how kind she had been to everybody.
Procrastination Boggs crocheted a shawl for Beautiful Beulah and Laura Polk brought a tiny embroidered cap that fitted the doll's head perfectly. Bess made leggings for Nan's "child" and Gracie Mason presented a pair of fur-trimmed boots. Really, there never was so lucky a doll "baby" as Beautiful Beulah, for she had presents galore.
Nan could not refuse any of these gifts, and most of them came with funny little notes. The doll was made much of by everybody in Corridor Four. She was decked and re-decked in all the finery that came to her and many of the girls "looked in" at Room Seven every day, just to see how Nan's "child" got along.
The girl from Tillbury began to notice that some of the biggest of them liked to hold the doll and dress and redress it; and "there was a deal of fuss," as Mrs. Cupp said, made over the pretty blue-eyed thing.
Finally Laura had a bright idea. She suggested that a party be given in Beautiful Beulah's honor.
"A regular, sure-enough, honest-to-goodness party!" she cried. "Why not?
Everybody bring something to give the child--have a regular 'shower'
party."
"Goodness! haven't we had parties enough for one term?" demanded Nan.
"That one at the boathouse seemed to fill the bill."
"Oh, nothing like that! We might not get out of it so easy again,"
admitted the red-haired girl. "And, anyway, that's ancient history.
Let's have it in the afternoon and feed 'em tea and cakes."
Bess was enthusiastic immediately. She had been quite subdued since the boathouse party, and Nan's sickness; she was "just aching" for something to happen! Anything "doing" always delighted Bess; but the trouble with Nan's chum was, she _would_ try to mix the business of studying with pleasure.
She started to crochet a "fascinator" (so Amelia Boggs called it) for Nan's doll, and fearing she would not get it done in time she carried the crocheting with her into German class, Frau Deuseldorf was not particularly sharp-sighted; but her hearing was not failing; and when she addressed Bess twice without receiving any reply it was only natural that the German teacher should step down from the platform to see what the brown head was doing, bent so low over Elizabeth's book.
"Vell, vell, vell!" exclaimed the teacher, in some excitement. "Vas iss?"
"Oh! One, two, three, _and_ four!" muttered the earnest Bess. "Did--did you speak to me, Madam?" and the girl looked up dreamily, poising the crocheting needle before taking up the next stitch.
"Ach! what is the child doing?" demanded the lady, seizing the work in Bess' hand.
"Oh, Madam Deuseldorf!" shrieked Bess. "You made me drop a stitch."
"Drop a stitch? Drop a stitch?" repeated the lady, in some heat. "Undt vy shouldt you have stitches to drop in classroom? Tell me that, please!"
"Oh--oh--I--I----" poor Bess stammered, Frau Deuseldorf could be very stern when she wished.
"What iss this for?" demanded the teacher, holding up the confiscated "fascinator" and shaking it in the air so that all the girls began to giggle.
"It's for the party," blurted out Bess, very red in the face.
Just then Dr. Beulah and half a dozen visitors--some of them gentlemen--entered the classroom. The situation was tragic--for poor Bess. There stood Frau Deuseldorf in commanding attitude, her back to the door, unconscious of the approach of the preceptress and her friends, and waving the unfinished bit of crocheting in the air.
"For why did you come here to Lakeview, Miss?" demanded the teacher. "To knit--to sew--to _play_? Ach! I do not teach a class in baby-doll r-r-rags, I hope! Remove yourself to the platform, Miss. Take this--this plaything with you. Sit down there that the other pupils may see how you employ your hands and mind in class----"
She turned majestically and saw the amused visitors. Even Dr. Beulah seemed to relish the situation, for her eyes twinkled and her lips twitched a little as she said--to cover the German lady's confusion:
"The time is not propitious for a visit to _your_ class, Madam, I can plainly see. We will withdraw."
She did not speak sternly; but Nan--who was watching--saw that Frau Deuseldorf turned strangely pallid and that her hands shook as she went back to her desk, following the angry and tearful Bess. After a moment, when the girls had settled into something like their usual calm, and had stopped giggling, the lady leaned over and patted Bess softly on the shoulder.