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Beginning Anomaly
Detection Using
Python-Based Deep
Learning
Implement Anomaly Detection
Applications with Keras and PyTorch
Second Edition
Introduction�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xv
iii
Table of Contents
Networking���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 21
Medicine�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 21
Video Surveillance����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 22
Environment�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 22
Summary������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 22
iv
Table of Contents
vi
Table of Contents
Chapter 11: Practical Use Cases and Future Trends of Anomaly Detection ��������� 481
Anomaly Detection�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 482
Real-World Use Cases of Anomaly Detection���������������������������������������������������������������������������� 485
Telecom������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 485
Banking������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 487
Environmental��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 488
Health Care�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 490
Transportation��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 493
Social Media������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 494
Finance and Insurance�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 495
Cybersecurity���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 496
Video Surveillance��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 499
Manufacturing��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 500
Smart Home������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 503
Retail����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 504
Implementation of Deep Learning–Based Anomaly Detection�������������������������������������������������� 504
Future Trends���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 506
Summary���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 508
Index��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 511
vii
About the Authors
Suman Kalyan Adari is currently a machine learning research engineer. He obtained a
B.S. in computer science at the University of Florida and an M.S. in computer science,
specializing in machine learning, at Columbia University. He has been conducting
deep learning research in adversarial machine learning since his freshman year at the
University of Florida and has presented at the IEEE Dependable Systems and Networks
workshop on Dependable and Secure Machine Learning held in Portland, Oregon,
USA in June 2019. Currently, he works on various anomaly detection tasks spanning
behavioral tracking and geospatial trajectory modeling.
He is quite passionate about deep learning, and specializes in various fields ranging
from video processing to generative modeling, object tracking, time-series modeling,
and more.
Sridhar Alla is the co-founder and CTO of Bluewhale, which helps organizations big
and small in building AI-driven big data solutions and analytics, as well as SAS2PY, a
powerful tool to automate migration of SAS workloads to Python-based environments
using Pandas or PySpark. He is a published author of books and an avid presenter
at numerous Strata, Hadoop World, Spark Summit, and other conferences. He also
has several patents filed with the US PTO on large-scale computing and distributed
systems. He has extensive hands-on experience in several technologies, including Spark,
Flink, Hadoop, AWS, Azure, TensorFlow, Cassandra, and others. He spoke on anomaly
detection using deep learning at Strata SFO in March 2019 and at Strata London in
October 2019. He was born in Hyderabad, India, and now lives in New Jersey with his
wife, Rosie, his daughters, Evelyn and Madelyn, and his son, Jayson. When he is not busy
writing code, he loves to spend time with his family and also training, coaching, and
organizing meetups.
ix
About the Technical Reviewers
Puneet Sinha has accumulated more than 12 years of work
experience in developing and deploying end-to-end models
in credit risk, multiple marketing optimization, A/B testing,
demand forecasting and brand evaluation, profit and price
analyses, anomaly and fraud detection, propensity modeling,
recommender systems, upsell/cross-sell models, modeling
response to incentives, price optimization, natural language
processing, and OCR using ML/deep learning algorithms.
xi
Acknowledgments
Suman Kalyan Adari
I would like to thank my parents, Krishna and Jyothi, my sister, Niha, and my loving dog,
Pinky, for supporting me throughout the entire process of writing this book as well as my
various other endeavors.
Sridhar Alla
I would like to thank my wonderful, loving wife, Rosie Sarkaria, and my beautiful,
loving children, Evelyn, Madelyn, and Jayson, for all their love and patience during the
many months I spent writing this book. I would also like to thank my parents, Ravi and
Lakshmi Alla, for their blessings and all the support and encouragement they continue
to bestow upon me.
xiii
Introduction
Congratulations on your decision to explore the exciting world of anomaly detection
using deep learning!
Anomaly detection involves finding patterns that do not adhere to what is
considered as normal or expected behavior. Businesses could lose millions of dollars
due to abnormal events. Consumers could also lose millions of dollars. In fact, there are
many situations every day where people’s lives are at risk and where their property is at
risk. If your bank account gets cleaned out, that’s a problem. If your water line breaks,
flooding your basement, that’s a problem. If all flights at an airport get delayed due to a
technical glitch in the traffic control system, that’s a problem. If you have a health issue
that is misdiagnosed or not diagnosed, that’s a very big problem that directly impacts
your well-being.
In this book, you will learn how anomaly detection can be used to solve business
problems. You will explore how anomaly detection techniques can be used to address
practical use cases and address real-life problems in the business landscape. Every
business and use case is different, so while we cannot copy and paste code and build a
successful model to detect anomalies in any dataset, this book will cover many use cases
with hands-on coding exercises to give you an idea of the possibilities and concepts
behind the thought process. All the code examples in the book are presented in Python
3.8. We choose Python because it is truly the best language for data science, with a
plethora of packages and integrations with scikit-learn, deep learning libraries, etc.
We will start by introducing anomaly detection, and then we will look at legacy
methods of detecting anomalies that have been used for decades. Then we will look
at deep learning to get a taste of it. Then we will explore autoencoders and variational
autoencoders, which are paving the way for the next generation of generative models.
Following that, we will explore generative adversarial networks (GANs) as a way to detect
anomalies, delving directly into generative AI.
Then we’ll look at long short-term memory (LSTM) models to see how temporal data
can be processed. We will cover temporal convolutional networks (TCNs), which are
excellent for temporal data anomaly detection. We will also touch upon the transformer
xv
Introduction
xvi
CHAPTER 1
Introduction to Anomaly
Detection
In this chapter, you will learn about anomalies in general, the categories of anomalies,
and anomaly detection. You will also learn why anomaly detection is important, how
anomalies can be detected, and the use case for such a mechanism.
In a nutshell, this chapter covers the following topics:
• What is an anomaly?
What Is an Anomaly?
Before you get started with learning about anomaly detection, you must first understand
what exactly you are targeting. Generally, an anomaly is an outcome or value that
deviates from what is expected, but the exact criteria for what determines an anomaly
can vary from situation to situation.
Anomalous Swans
To get a better understanding of what an anomaly is, let’s take a look at some swans
sitting by a lake (Figure 1-1).
1
© Suman Kalyan Adari, Sridhar Alla 2024
S. K. Adari and S. Alla, Beginning Anomaly Detection Using Python-Based Deep Learning,
https://doi.org/10.1007/979-8-8688-0008-5_1
Chapter 1 Introduction to Anomaly Detection
Let’s say that we want to observe these swans and make assumptions about the
color of the swans at this particular lake. Our goal is to determine what the normal
color of swans is and to see if there are any swans that are of a different color than this
(Figure 1-2).
Figure 1-2. More swans show up, all of which are white
2
Chapter 1 Introduction to Anomaly Detection
We continue to observe swans for a few years and all of them have been white. Given
these observations, we can reasonably conclude that every swan at this lake should be
white. The very next day, we are observing swans at the lake again. But wait! What’s this?
A black swan has just flown in (Figure 1-3).
Considering our previous observations, we thought that we had seen enough swans
to assume that the next swan would also be white. However, the black swan defies that
assumption entirely, making it an anomaly. It’s not really an outlier, which would be, for
example, a really big white swan or a really small white swan; it’s a swan that’s entirely
a different color, making it an anomaly. In our scenario, the overwhelming majority of
swans are white, making the black swan extremely rare.
In other words, given a swan by the lake, the probability of it being black is very
small. We can explain our reasoning for labeling the black swan as an anomaly with one
of two approaches (though we aren’t limited to only these two approaches).
First, given that a vast majority of swans observed at this particular lake are white, we
can assume that, through a process similar to inductive reasoning, the normal color for a
swan here is white. Naturally, we would label the black swan as an anomaly purely based
on our prior assumptions that all swans are white, considering that we’d only seen white
swans before the black swan arrived.
3
Chapter 1 Introduction to Anomaly Detection
Another way to look at why the black swan is an anomaly is through probability.
Now assume that there is a total of 1000 swans at this lake and only two are black swans;
the probability of a swan being black is 2 / 1000, or 0.002. Depending on the probability
threshold, meaning the lowest probability for an outcome or event that will be accepted
as normal, the black swan could be labeled as anomalous or normal. In our case, we will
consider it an anomaly because of its extreme rarity at this lake.
The intersections of the dotted lines have created several different regions containing
data points. Of interest is the bounding box (solid lines) created from the intersection of
both sets of dotted lines since it contains the data points for samples deemed acceptable
(Figure 1-5). Any data point outside of that specific box will be considered anomalous.
4
Chapter 1 Introduction to Anomaly Detection
Figure 1-5. Data points are identified as “good” or “anomaly” based on their
location
Now that we know which points are and aren’t acceptable, let’s pick out a sample from
a new batch of screws and check its data to see where it falls on the graph (Figure 1-6).
Figure 1-6. A new data point representing the new sample screw is generated,
with the data falling within the bounding box
The data for this sample screw falls within the acceptable range. That means that this
batch of screws is good to use since its density as well as tensile strength is appropriate
for use by the consumer. Now let’s look at a sample from the next batch of screws and
check its data (Figure 1-7).
5
Chapter 1 Introduction to Anomaly Detection
Figure 1-7. A new data point is generated for another sample, but this falls
outside the bounding box
The data falls far outside the acceptable range. For its density, the screw has abysmal
tensile strength and is unfit for use. Since it has been flagged as an anomaly, the
factory can investigate why this batch of screws turned out to be brittle. For a factory of
considerable size, it is important to hold a high standard of quality as well as maintain
a high volume of steady output to keep up with consumer demands. For a monumental
task like that, automation to detect any anomalies to avoid sending out faulty screws is
essential and has the benefit of being extremely scalable.
So far, we have explored anomalies as data points that are either out of place, in the
case of the black swan, or unwanted, in the case of faulty screws. So what happens when
we introduce time as a new variable?
6
Chapter 1 Introduction to Anomaly Detection
Assume the initial spike in expenditures at the start of the month is due to the
payment of bills such as rent and insurance. During the weekdays, our example person
occasionally eats out, and on the weekends goes shopping for groceries, clothes, and
various other items. Also assume that this month does not include any major holidays.
These expenditures can vary from month to month, especially in months with major
holidays. Assume that our person lives in the United States, in which the holiday of
Thanksgiving falls on the last Thursday of the month of November. Many U.S. employers
also include the Friday after Thanksgiving as a day off for employees. U.S. retailers have
leveraged that fact to entice people to begin their Christmas shopping by offering special
deals on what has colloquially become known as “Black Friday.” With that in mind, let’s
take a look at our person’s spending pattern in November (Figure 1-9). As expected, a
massive spike in purchases occurred on Black Friday, some of them quite expensive.
7
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was in Nancy’s mind a new thought. It came when Orilla had smiled
at her in the woods. Perhaps Nancy could help Orilla!
“Yes. And you see, if I lost twenty pounds in the month the folks
are in Europe I would be quite—quite slender when they came
back,” and she smiled so prettily that Nancy wondered Why she
wanted to spoil those dimples with trimming off their scallops.
“Yes, I think she is like that,” agreed Nancy, thereby dismissing for
a time at least the mystery of the plot. “But what we have got to do
now is to fix up her damages. Rosa, I do wish you would let Margot
see that big scratch. I’m no good at nursing and I don’t want to take
the responsibility—”
“But when Margot smells this drug store she’ll surely suspect,”
intimated Nancy, for, as she said, the disinfectants had made havoc
with the atmosphere of Rosa’s little dressing room, that adjoined her
bath.
Nancy agreed that she could, and that led to further discussion of
Mrs. Pixley, Orilla, Mrs. Rigney and some other folks that Nancy had
recently become acquainted with.
This was to have been the evening of the dance at Sunset Hotel,
but there was now no possibility of the girls attending it. Not only
did Rosa’s battered condition make it impossible, but a heavy
summer storm had descended upon the mountains, and showed no
indications of subsiding.
Somehow the storm seemed a fitting finish for the turbulent day
that Nancy and Rosa had just passed through, and as they watched
the display in the heavens they worried about Orilla. Was she safely
under shelter? Why did not her mother prevent her foolish work?
And, Nancy secretly wondered, what had that little flash of light
meant which she had seen flame up suddenly and then die out?
For days following this there was no sign of Orilla nor did any
word from her come to Fernlode. But this was in no way unusual,
rather was it regarded as a good thing for Rosa and Nancy.
Rosa recovered quickly, as she had promised to, and she also
“reformed.” That is, she no longer kept secret trysts with the “fat-
killer,” as she now called Orilla, although Nancy knew that letters,
messages, and even bundles addressed to Orilla went out very
privately from Rosa’s room.
The arrival of a lovely white scales for Rosa’s bath room came as a
surprise one day, but a letter from Lady Betty presently explained it.
Rosa was to take long walks with Nancy, as she had promised to
do; she was also to follow some sensible advice in the matter of
diet, and just to keep up her courage she was to watch the scales!
“I can’t see why you didn’t know that insistent exercise and cut-
down rations was the real cure,” argued Nancy, reasonably enough.
“Even at grammar school, and in the lower grades, babes, fat dimply
little ones, are walking miles to school and turning their backs on
lollipops.”
“Yes; I could just see myself in a movie cutting down trees and
falling away into skeleton lines. It was romantic now, Nance, wasn’t
it, really?”
They finally went to a dance at Sunset Hotel, and Rosa wore the
blue cape. It was a perfect evening and everyone was so happy that
even the sight of the cape upon Rosa’s shoulders failed to bring
regret to Nancy. Four car loads of young folks from their summer
homes paraded down the hillside road at nine o’clock. It seemed late
to Nancy, but she knew better than to say so.
“The hotel children have the ball-room from eight until nine,” Dell
had explained, “then the young folks swarm in. Don’t worry about
being too young, Nancy. You look like a young lady in that stunning
rig.”
The “rig” was stunning, even Nancy conceded that, for it was a
flame-colored chiffon robe that fell down straight from her
shoulders, sleeveless, and with the fashionable high neck. Her dark
hair set the flame color off beautifully, as did the glints of her dark
eyes, and she really did look lovely. This costume was one of Lady
Betty’s presents.
Whether a girl was fourteen or nineteen no one could tell, for the
bobbed heads were so much alike and so ineffably youthful,
everyone looked very young indeed.
The hotel was fascinating to Nancy; its great posts and pillars
flanked with baskets of growing vines, the spectacular lights set all
over the ceilings, and the music!
“But I’d die if I had to stay at a hotel,” Gar assured her as she
commented upon the grandeur. “It’s all right once in a while, but you
would hate this artificial living as a regular diet.”
Nancy agreed that she might, but she also expressed her interest
in a sample like this. Rosa had a wonderful time also, the best part
of it being the number of compliments she received.
Only Ted and her mother had been there to make that first one
really complete.
CHAPTER XX
And Rosa was getting thin! In this simple, easy, pleasant way—just
long walks, daily. That meant rain or shine and “long” meant all the
way to the village, clear down to the post office, two miles each way.
At first Rosa objected; she found her feet untrained for such tramps,
but Nancy knew and insisted.
“Why not try my cure?” she urged. “It’s not near as unpleasant as
Orilla’s.”
“Very well,” Rosa would sigh. “But you better tip off the scales. If
they don’t mark me low—”
“All right. Anything once, but don’t expect me to fly up in the air
after the ball, the way you do, Nance. I’m still something of a paper
weight, you know.”
“I know what was the matter with you, Rosa,” her cousin told her
one afternoon after an especially enjoyable set with Paul and Gar,
“you thought you were fat, and so you were self-conscious and
miserable. Now you think you aren’t very fat, and you’re proud.”
She was so happy! No one who has always been free from such
an insistent worry as Rosa’s had been, can actually understand the
joy of hope that a few pounds less flesh can bring. The hand of that
little white scale became a friend, an understanding friend, and
every time it pointed to a figure Rosa held her breath.
But this did not solve the mystery built around Orilla. Rosa herself
was as keenly interested in that as was Nancy, in spite of her rescue
from any actual need of it. Bit by bit she confided in Nancy details of
the queer bargain between her and Orilla. She had shared her
allowance with her, who insisted she had a right to some of it
anyway, and that she would not “make Rosa as thin as herself” if
she didn’t pay well for it.
“But what has she done with the money?” Nancy asked, after that
admission.
“Oh, I don’t know,” replied Rosa, innocently. “You see, she had
some big project in her mind and everything else she could get was
supposed to go toward it.”
One evening when Nancy was seeking a little solitude along the
lake front, there to read again her latest letter from her mother and
the latest “funny page” from Ted, she was startled by someone
calling her name in a hushed, whispering voice.
“Oh, I’m all right,” replied the girl, who as usual wore the dingy
suit of khaki, and a boy’s soft hat upon her thick red hair. “I’m glad I
met you here. I want to ask a favor of you.”
“All right, Orilla,” said Nancy sincerely, “I shall be glad to help you
if I can.”
Nancy smiled broadly at this, but Orilla did not appear to notice it.
She motioned to a rustic seat and they both sat down. Nancy was
curious and a little anxious, for Orilla, while assuming friendship, still
had that queer, furtive look in her eyes, and her face was surely
unnaturally flushed.
“Have you been working too hard, Orilla?” Nancy asked kindly.
“You aren’t strong and you shouldn’t—”
As if the secret so long waited for was about to burst over Nancy’s
head, like a cloud before a storm, she waited.
“Because you’re so square. I’ve read about girls like you. They
always want everything just right, no tricks nor sneaking. I knew
that night when you tried on that cape that you were doing
something for Rosa.”
“You looked it. When a girl is sneaking she doesn’t flare up and
get mad the way you did,” went on the surprising Orilla and Nancy
knew better than to prolong the discussion by any arguments. She
merely smiled and accepted the words as they were intended.
“And since then you’ve never told,” Orilla declared, her features
drawn and strained as she talked, and her eyes shifting. “You never
told Rosa, for if you had she would have told me. What she knows
the world knows,” said Orilla, scornfully.
“But Rosa has never said anything against you, Orilla,” spoke up
Nancy. “I’m sure you ought to give her credit for that.”
“There you go again. I told you you were an idealist. But that’s all
the better for me. I can trust you, too.”
“It won’t interfere with your family, don’t worry,” replied Orilla. “I
just want you to take care of some money for me. That’s not so hard
to do, is it?”
“Because I suspect that someone knows I’ve got it, and they’re
after it.” Orilla was very calm and composed now, and Nancy noticed
how quickly her moods changed. “It’s in this little bag,” Orilla
continued, showing to Nancy a square, brown bag made of khaki,
just like her suit. It was bulky and seemed to contain quite a lot of
money—if it were all money.
“Well, if you just want me to take it for a few days I don’t suppose
there is any harm in that,” reasoned Nancy. “But suppose someone
stole it from me?”
“No one would around here, that is, not up in your rooms,” replied
Orilla. “Please take it, Nancy. It means an awful lot to me,” and she
laid the bag on Nancy’s lap as she pleaded.
“All right. But don’t hold me responsible. I’ll do the best I can to
take care of it, of course,” Nancy assured her, “but if anything does
happen—”
“It won’t. Thank you for taking it, Nancy. Now I am free to—finish
my work,” and she stood up to leave.
“But, Orilla, you were going to tell me something else; your secret
place, wasn’t it?” Nancy felt now she should know more about
Orilla’s business if she were going to act as her secret treasurer.
“Oh, I can’t wait now, but meet me here to-morrow evening at
this time, and then I’ll tell you. Good-bye, I must go. Don’t mention
having seen me,” and just as she had done before, Orilla slipped
away, back of the bushes like a wild creature of the woods, indeed.
For a few minutes Nancy sat there, the brown bag lying in her lap,
an unwelcome treasure.
“How queer!” she was thinking. “And most of this was Rosa’s. But
Rosa gave it to her, so it really is Orilla’s now. Imagine my being her
—cashier!” and a little laugh escaped from Nancy’s lips.
“She is certainly the oddest girl I have ever met,” she reflected.
“But I had no idea of becoming a chum of hers. What would Rosa
say if she knew?”
Having the bag of money was certainly a tangible link between her
and Orilla, and already Nancy understood its significance.
“I’d love to tell Rosa,” she pondered, “but if I did Orilla would not
trust me further, and I know I must keep her confidence, for a while
at least. Just now Rosa is getting along so splendidly,” she told
herself, “and she’s so relieved from her worries, that it surely must
be best to keep her out of Orilla’s affairs.”
ENTANGLEMENTS
A week passed and still Nancy guarded the bag, but in that time
had neither seen Orilla nor heard from her. The girl’s promise to
meet her at the lakeside, on the evening following that upon which
she had imposed the trust upon Nancy, had not been kept. Nancy
waited until dark, and even a little later than she felt comfortable,
out there alone away from everyone, and at a considerable distance
from the house; but Orilla did not come.
Finally, it was Rosa who broke the spell. She burst in upon Nancy
one morning before breakfast.
“I knew you would. Then don’t worry about me this morning. I’ve
just got to go off and find her—”
“I’ll go with you.”
“But I want to go, Rosa. I’m interested in finding her. In fact, I’ve
got a reason—”
“Rosa,” she began again, “I’d love to tell you my secret, but you
see I promised Orilla—”
“So did I,” interrupted Rosa, smiling in spite of herself. “And, you
see, if we both went she would believe we both told.”
“I’ll come back as quickly as I can,” she promised, “and then you
can go talk to her.”
“The Cucumber. That’s her boat and that’s the one we’re going in.”
“Who else is going?” asked Nancy. “Why couldn’t I sit in the boat
with Katherine—”
“If Orilla saw you along she would never believe me,” persisted
Rosa, a little disconsolately.
“Don’t you think we are humoring her an awful lot, Rosa?” Nancy
asked in a strained voice; she too was bothered.
“Well, I suppose I am; not you. But just this once. You see, Nancy,
Orilla hasn’t much in life and she expected such a lot.”
“You’re good to her, Rosa, perhaps too good. But I hope you’re
not making another mistake; you know how she influences you.”
“She couldn’t now, Coz. I’m not in need of her services. You see,
my doctor is a resident. I have her with me all the time,” and again
she flung her arms affectionately around Nancy.
It might have been that Nancy had not yet gotten over that
anxious search for Rosa, when she and the Durands finally found her
on Mushroom Island, at any rate, all that morning Nancy worried.
Lunch time came but Rosa did not. One, two, three o’clock! Nancy
could stand it no longer. She made some excuse to Margot and
hurried over to Durand’s.
It happened that Paul was there, and, of course, Gar was with
him; but Dell had gone out.
“Look for Rosa!” shouted Gar, just as she knew he would when
she told why she had come. “Say, Nance, what is this, anyway? A
bureau of missing persons?”
She explained without fully explaining, and the boys gladly enough
set sail in the Whitecap, once more to search for the illusive Rosa.
But her anxiety over the delay of Rosa’s return was not even thinly
covered by these assumed interests, and only Gar’s continual threats
to do something dreadful to the runaway “this time sure” and his
repeated avowals that he positively, absolutely and unquestionably
would not “dig up the woods nor chop down trees in this search,”
kept Nancy’s real worry from being mentioned.
“We don’t have to go on the islands to look for the Cucumber,” Gar
insisted. “The girls couldn’t hide that boat if they tried. It’s so green
you can hear it, to say nothing of the noise that engine makes.”
“All right,” agreed, Gar, “but after that I’ve got to get back.
Promised to drive down for Dell, you know, and she isn’t walking off
fat.”
They skirted the islands but did not discover the long green boat
at any landing or out upon the lake. Then they proceeded to
navigate in the direction of the Point. Here they encountered many
boats of many descriptions, for the Point was not only a pretty point
of land extending out into the water, but it was also a point of
recreation and general interest for summer folk for miles around.
“Not here,” reported Paul, for there was no sign of the girls, and
the boat was nowhere to be seen. “Better go back home. They could
have gone in through the cove, you know.”
“Of course they could, and I’ll bet they have,” declared Gar. “Well,
we had a fine sail, anyway. Hope you enjoyed it, Miss Brandon?” he
finished in assumed formality.
“Joking aside,” said Paul, “are you having any fun, Nancy? That
cousin of yours is as hard to manage as a young colt, I’d say.”
“Oh, no, she isn’t, really,” replied Nancy. “We have wonderful times
now, much better than we did at first when we didn’t understand
each other.”
“And you claim to understand Rosa now?” asked Gar, swerving his
boat into the small cove that lay beside his own summer home and
Fernlode.
“Yes, but your dear little Rosalind is all right, standing there all by
her little self. See her?” said Gar, as usual teasing about Rosa.
It took but a few moments to pull up to the long landing, but the
Cucumber had already steamed off and, as Gar had said, Rosa stood
there, waiting alone.
One look at her cousin’s face and Nancy knew she had been
disappointed. She had not found Orilla.
CHAPTER XXII
“Why was it so important for you to see her to-day?” Nancy asked,
innocently enough.
“I had a message for her, and that should have reached her to-
day,” replied Rosa. But she did not go into details and Nancy felt that
she could not question further. However, she did try to reassure
Nancy that Orilla would probably be around before nightfall.
“I hope so,” Rosa said, “if not, I simply don’t know what I shall do.
I went to all her woodland haunts that I know of, and land knows
she’s got enough of them, but there wasn’t even a trace to show
that human footprints had been over the ground lately. Oh, dear,
isn’t it awful to be a crank? Orilla is just a crank, and I tell you I’m
about sick of her ways,” Rosa pouted. “But I have to get some of the
loose ends tied up before I can wash my hands of it, as Margot
would say.”
“And there she is,” Nancy reminded Rosa, for at that moment
Margot was coming down the path at a brisk rate.
“On the war path,” Rosa remarked. “I’ve got to surprise her with
some news. Let me see! Oh, I’ll tell her about a big sale of linens
down at Daws,” and forthwith Rosa rushed up the path to proclaim
the glad tidings to the unsuspecting Margot—or the Margot who was
pretending to be unsuspecting.
From that moment until after dinner and until almost nightfall, the
cousins had not a moment to themselves, for company came, and
Rosa had to entertain. Nancy also helped out, the visitors being
most interested in her simple reports from the neighboring state.
When they were leaving (they were the Drydens from the Weirs and
were staying at a hotel in Craggy Bluff) Rosa drove in town with
them to bring some mail to the post office, but Nancy declined to
go. Rosa was to meet Dell Durand and drive back with her, and as
Dell had talked to Nancy on the phone and assured her she would
be back before dark (all this in coaxing Nancy to go), there seemed
no danger of delay for Rosa.
When they had all gone Nancy felt herself free at last to take her
favorite stroll along the lake front. The sunset was glorious; golds,
purples, greens and ashes of roses, in hues too brilliant to be so
tersely described. Is there anything which can beggar description as
can a sunset on that great, majestic lake! Words cannot tell of it, no
more than the mist can veil it.
It was Orilla!
“But I’m so glad you came,” Nancy hurried to add. “We’ve been
looking everywhere for you, all day.”
“I’ve been away, to the city, and I’m so tired!” With a sigh she
sank down upon the lake-side bench. “I believe I would die if I had
to live in a city,” she murmured.
“It is dreadfully stuffy after air like this,” agreed Nancy. “But you
are not sick, are you, Orilla?” she asked anxiously, for Orilla did seem
very unlike herself.
“First, Orilla,” interrupted Nancy, “won’t you please let me give you
your little bag? It has worried me—”
Before Nancy could speak again Orilla had risen and was leading
the way to the other end of the spacious grounds.
“Come this way,” she said. “We won’t meet anybody and I must
not delay too long.”
“Let me tell you alone, Nancy, please,” pleaded Orilla. “Then you
may tell Rosa if you want to. I’m tired of secrets, tired of being
hated and tired of fighting. Until you showed some friendliness for
me, I haven’t ever remembered kindness except from mother, and,
well, just a few others,” finished Orilla, evasively.
She was hurrying toward the rear of the big house and Nancy was
following. The path she picked out was quite new to Nancy, who
thought she had discovered every little nook and corner of the big
summer place, but this was a mere strip of clearance, tunneled in
under heavy wild grape vines that grew clamorously over high and
low shrubbery, and even climbed into the biggest wild cherry tree.
Neither girl spoke for some minutes. Then Orilla asked Nancy if
she liked Fernlode.
“Oh, no, Orilla, they didn’t do that,” Nancy hurried to correct her.
“When Uncle Frederic married—”
“I know all that, Nancy, but don’t let’s talk of it. It makes me
furious, even now. Don’t talk any more—some one might hear us.
Just come quietly after me,” she whispered.
Where could she be leading her, Nancy wondered? Surely this was
the end of the house just back of the servant’s dining room—
Orilla stepped up to the corner of the building, and then Nancy
saw that they faced a small door. It was situated at the extreme end
of the first floor and almost hidden in heavy shrubbery. While Nancy
waited, Orilla surprised her still further by taking a key from her
dress and turning it in the lock.
“Orilla!”
“Hush! Just keep close,” whispered the girl. “It is only dark at the
entrance.”
“This is—my—room!”
Her room!
“You see, these are all my things, and I come here whenever I get
a chance,” Orilla confessed. “No one ever thinks of looking in here,
and I never take anything away. I wouldn’t do that, you know,” she
said very positively, as if fearing Nancy’s opinion.
“Yes; and no one else cares for it or needs it.” Orilla was
straightening around the brown reed chairs and patting the small
table cover, and as she touched a thing, her affectionate interest in it
was plain even to Nancy’s excited gaze.
“No. Rosa has been away a lot, you know, and besides, the
Fernells only come here in summer. I was born in these mountains,
and as a child mother brought me here. She’s a nurse, you know,
and a wonderful mother.” Orilla sat down and pointed out a chair to
Nancy, which the latter gratefully accepted.
Nancy knew little about Mrs. Rigney, but she guessed now that
probably her love for Orilla had led her into the mistake of allowing
her daughter to grow up believing Fernlode to be her own home.
“Mother was devoted to the real Mrs. Fernell,” she said, thereby
disputing Lady Betty’s later claim, “and Mrs. Fernell was lovely to
me. While Rosa was away at school I played around here as—well—
you can imagine how I felt to be put out of this room!” she again
challenged.
Nancy gazed silently at the girl upon the bed. Her hair, always so
fiery red, did not look quite so peculiar on that pillow—Orilla’s own
pillow, that she had so long loved. The room was musty and needed
a thorough airing, but Nancy noticed a small casement window
opened slightly—this was, she reasoned, Orilla’s way of secretly
ventilating the room.
“I don’t see what could be very wrong about your coming here,”
Nancy finally answered Orilla’s question. “But why didn’t you ask?”
“You were not turned away, Orilla, and that’s a foolish thing to say.
Uncle Frederic simply changed his plans and there was no need of a
nurse here,” stoutly and emphatically proclaimed Nancy.
“Now, Orilla, you can’t deny you were not a suitable companion
for Rosa, because you could make her do anything. You are older,
and you worked on her sympathies,” Nancy felt obliged to point out.
“I’ll admit that now, Nancy, to you, but it didn’t seem that way
before. I never told anyone, not even mother, how I felt, and it just
all piled up inside of me until I imagined myself like a volcano,
always ready to—erupt.”
This was the first time that Nancy had noticed any depth to Orilla’s
character, and she had continually wondered where the educational
influences, said to have been provided by her uncle, had been
hidden in the girl’s personality. But the confession of her morbid,
morose state of mind was plainly the answer. She had fought down
culture, choosing to be simply a wild girl of the mountains.
“My mother always insists upon us talking things out,” said Nancy
quietly. “It’s so much better to share our worries—”
“I know that now. I feel like a different girl, just from talking to
you, and you’re only a kid,” said Orilla, again betraying her disregard
of polite English. “I’m through with secrets, Nancy,” she continued,
jumping up suddenly from the bed, with evident nervousness. “One
secret leads to another until I am fairly smothered in them. Now,
this one is not so heavy, but there—are—more.”
CHAPTER XXIII
SHEDDING SECRETS
Orilla was now moving about the room in such an excited manner
that Nancy became alarmed!
“Come on out, Orilla,” she begged. “I really have stayed too long.
Rosa will be back—”
“All right. Let’s go. But I want to tell you that I broke the fern
stand—Mrs. Betty’s, you know,” Orilla said, her voice raising beyond
the pitch of security. “I came back that night—mother was to be
away a week and I came up here for that one night—and I had
forgotten my key. I was so mad to have to go back home all alone
and it was late, you know, that I just Smashed that fancy stand for
revenge!”
“Yes, and I must go,” she cast a lingering look about the room,
which really was quite cozy. “How I would love to be able to come in
here and fix things up,” she sighed.
“Oh, no. That isn’t all of it, but you wouldn’t care for soft soap,”
said Orilla wistfully.
“You know she has been looking for you all day,” persisted Nancy,
anxiously.
“Orilla, I can’t let you go,” interposed Nancy. “I’m afraid you’re sick
—”
“No, I’m not, really. I have these headaches often, and bringing
you into my room, you see—”
Nancy heard voices from the roadway just as Orilla slipped into
her boat and paddled off. Finding the secret room had been such a
sudden revelation that Nancy could scarcely understand it all even
yet. That Orilla should have so loved that room, and that she had
been coming to it secretly for so long a time, seemed incredible.
“Uncle Frederic would have let her have it, I’m sure,” Nancy
reasoned, “and I’m going to ask him to,” she determined, when the
unmistakable voice of Rosa floated in through the hedge.
“Calm yourself, Rosa,” said Nancy importantly. “I’ve got such news
—”
“Yes—”
“And she’s gone? Why didn’t you chain her till I came—”
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