Scholarly Pursuits: A Victorian San Francisco Mystery by M. Louisa Locke

Author:M. Louisa Locke [Locke, M. Louisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub

CHAPTER 29

Sunday afternoon, March 20, 1881

Berkeley

“OUR BOYS: These are the boys that love their mothers loyally, and hate to grieve them, yet they want to smoke, they want to stay out nights…and their feet are prone to tread in forbidden paths, even against their will.” San Francisco Chronicle, December 7, 1881

“Yes, Celia, I did promise I would correct Ned’s German translation,” Laura said. “Correct it, not write it for him. He’s never going to learn German, or algebraic equations for that matter, if we keep doing his work for him. And all I am asking is that he tell me who else, besides Mr. Sinclair and Mr. Keller, felt the need to harass Grace Atherton last semester. This shouldn’t take a moment, and then he will have plenty of time to write the two paragraphs Putzker has assigned for Monday.”

“I don’t understand why you want him to tell you this,” Celia said plaintively.

“I told you. Because I would like to interview some of the fine gentlemen among the secret societies on campus for my article. Find out why they thought Miss Atherton was worthy of their distain.”

“But how would Ned know who was involved…if there was indeed any harassment?”

Celia wrinkled her brow in confusion, an expression that Laura had come to mistrust, feeling it was her friend’s way of being critical…without appearing to be so. This was a tactic she’d seen Celia use with Ned, and she really didn’t appreciate having it used against her. Consequently, she let her impatience show, saying, “Because, as I am sure you remember, Ned already told us about how some of his Zeta Psi housemates bragged about the jokes they had played on her. Isn’t that right, Ned?”

Ned Goodwin leaned against the fireplace mantel, pretending to find a hair on his jacket. Well, he probably had found a hair, since the old kitchen cat, Queenie, often snuck into this room in the morning so she could sit in the bar of sun that hit the upholstered chair next to the desk. The chair that Ned had just vacated, although how he could see a black hair against his black suit coat was beyond her.

Celia, meanwhile, was fluttering agitatedly at his side, as if she needed bodily to defend him from Laura, while Seth glared at her from across the room. This was exactly why she’d hoped to get a few minutes alone with Ned before Celia got back from visiting her family. Unfortunately, Seth, Ned, and Celia arrived at the house at the same time. Ned also announced that he was going to have to leave the study session early to go back to Berkeley to attend some fraternity function.

As a result, even though she’d put off talking to Ned for as long as she could, she felt she had to bring up the topic before he slipped away. Her hope was that Celia and Seth were so involved with their Greek studies that they wouldn’t notice when she started asking Ned questions. She should have anticipated that he would not cooperate.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.