"Hallo!" she exclaimed. "Not a very breezy occupation to stand reading the Sixth Form timetable, is it?"
"I've nothing better to do," replied Alison, whose rosy face looked a trifle forlorn. "I don't know a soul here yet, or the ways of the place."
"You know me! Come along to the gym.; we're going to have a committee meeting."
"What's the meeting about?" she asked, as she stepped briskly with Dorothy along the passage.
"It's our 'Dramatic'. You see, we who stay for dinner get up little plays among ourselves. Each Form acts one or two every term. They're nothing grand--not like the swell things they have at the College Dramatic Union--and we only do them before the other girls in the gym., but they're great fun, all the same."
"I love acting!" declared Alison, with unction.
"Rather! We were keen on it at the school I went to in Leamstead. I was 'Nerissa' once, and 'Miss Matty' in _Scenes from Cranford_, and 'The March Hare' in _Alice in Wonderland_. I have the mask still, and the fur costume, and Miss Matty's cap and curls."
"Heaps--in a box at home. There are Miss Matty's mittens and cross-over, and her silk dress."
"Good! I must tell the girls that. We requisition everything we can. Where are they having the meeting, I wonder? Oh, there's Mavie beckoning to us near the horizontal bar!"
The day boarders belonging to the Upper Fourth were collected in a corner of the gymnasium, waiting impatiently for a few last arrivals. They made room for Dorothy and Alison, and as Annie Gray followed in a moment or two, the meeting began almost immediately. Hope Lawson, by virtue of her Wardenship, took the chair. The first business of the society was to choose a secretary.
"I beg to propose Dorothy Greenfield," said Grace Russell, putting in her word before anyone else had an opportunity, and looking at Ruth Harmon.
"And I beg to second the proposal," said Ruth, rising to the occasion.
Nobody offered the slightest opposition, and Dorothy was elected unanimously. Very much surprised, but extremely pleased, she accepted the notebook and stump of pencil that were handed her as signs of office.
"The next thing is to choose a play," said Hope, "and I think we can't do better than take one of these _Scenes from Thackeray_. _Miss Pinkerton's Establishment for Young Ladies_ is lovely."