Mrs. Stewart worried lest the girls would be wearing themselves out with too much study. But it was found that the work in the art classes under Mr. Fabians watchful eye, was a pleasure rather than a study or work.
Thus they started to build on a firm foundation, and by degrees they mastered the rudiments of geometrical drawing, then went on to ornamental designing, next taking up the study of architecture in so far as it applied to interior decorating, and at the end of the year they were drawing free hand and perspective sketches. But that was not until the school term was almost over.
By the end of the first week at Mrs. Wellingtons school, the girls had chosen their friends for the term. It was most interesting to Anne to note that a certain social element looked up to Eleanor as their natural leader, while the quiet persistent sort silently fell in line with Polly. Both girls were admired and heartily liked, by teachers as well as scholars, but there was one disturbing young lady who resented the usurping of her former undisputed sway in the school by the two new-comers.
Elizabeth Dalken was the pretty, but vain daughter of a superficial society woman who thought of nothing but self-indulgence, leaving the training of her child to Fate. Hence, Elizabeth was the usual product: selfish, proud, arrogant and hypocritical. She was but fifteen, yet she could slyly cheat at bridge, smoke her mothers cigarettes, and flirt with the men who frequented her home, as cleverly as her mother could.
For two previous years she had taken the reins of leadership at Wellingtons school and she had returned the third Fall fully expecting to resume her authority.
To learn that a western ranch-girl without a record in Whos Who, and a mere Chicago Miss, governed her former subjects, turned Elizabeth white with rage. She could say nothing about it, however, without starting her school friends teasing and laughing at her downfall. And she could not leave the school, because her mother had deserted her husband. He was the cashier for all the luxuries Mrs. Dalken and her daughter indulged themselves in, and he had selected Wellingtons school for the girl, and had paid the tuition fee in advance, so it stood to reason that he would not consent to a change, now, on account of her jealousy.
So on that first Friday evening, upon leaving school, Elizabeth promised herself that she would get square with those two nobodys in short order! She would show those other girls at Mrs. Wellingtons just who she was, and why they should have kept her as their leader!
But the western girls were not shamming their lovable characters, and as time went on, their companions appreciated, more and more, the sterling qualities in their chosen leaders. Thus Elizabeth found it no easy task to influence the girls against them.
October passed and November began, with the girls at Mrs. Wellingtons planning for a Thanksgiving entertainment to close their school for the holiday. Here Polly was discounted, as she had never taken part in amateur theatricals, and knew nothing about them. Had anyone asked her to differentiate between the Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian or Composite order of classic periods of architecture, she could have described either, or all of them, almost as well as Mr. Fabian himself could do. But the scholars at Mrs. Wellingtons never dreamed of Pollys ambition and knowledge along such lines of study.
So Elizabeth found herself the one to whom everyone appealed about costumes, parts, and the general management of affairs. Eleanor resented the obvious fact that she was completely ignored when the various important parts were distributed, but Polly never gave it a thought.
We couldnt accept a part, anyway, Nolla, with all the time we have planned to give to exhibitions and lectures, this month, Polly reminded her.
And your Daddy will be visiting New York that last week, Nolla, and you must devote your spare time to his entertainment not be fussing with a lot of girls over a silly poem, added Anne.
Thus the sharp sting was withdrawn and Eleanor forgot all about her injured feelings. But Elizabeth Dalken believed she was merely pretending that she felt no grudge against the Director of the Play. And it gave Elizabeth great satisfaction to believe she had actually offended the two popular western girls.
During November afternoons, and on several evenings, Mr. Fabian took the three friends to the Metropolitan Museum where wonderful exhibits of private collections were given. Here every New Yorker was admitted free to see genuine antiques of furniture, paintings, tapestries and rugs, plate and ornaments. And with such a marvelous judge to escort them about and explain details that might have escaped other than his knowing eye, Anne and her two charges felt well repaid for their time. It proved not only instructive but very absorbing these personal talks with Mr. Fabian about the rare and ancient articles.
Valuable volumes treating on subjects which most aspirants of art are acquainted with, began to fill the shelves in the rooms on the first floor of the stable-studio; and quite often, Mr. Fabian brought in a treasure he had picked up at a second-hand book shop. He would read aloud