“Only----” as Margot confided to Gretta later on, “Gretta, what else could I have done? You see, I truly thought the baby _was_ unhappy, so what else _could_ I do?”
“And what do you think!” exclaimed the returned prodigal. “I’ve got the most exciting thing to tell you. Just wait till to-night--all of you! You _will_ open your eyes!”
The girls addressed, being her three dormitory partners, opened their eyes instantly and widely; and with one accord, although the place was the cloak-room, and the time just five minutes before prayers on Monday morning, begged for instant disclosures.
“But I can’t!” urged Stella. “I’ve only just come, though I’m sure I begged the boy to drive quickly! And if the bell rings before I’m undressed I’ll be late.” She pulled feverishly at her coat, and tried to kick off one of her shoes at the same moment, just as Miss Read’s voice sounded urgently from the door.
“No more talking, and all the girls who are ready will go straight to their class-rooms. The prayer-bell will ring almost at once.”
With a sigh that the command should have come at such a tantalizing moment, the friends dispersed, Josy to seek the Fourth Form room, Gretta and Margot to make their way to the Upper Third, while Stella continued to undress in frantic haste in the empty cloak-room.
“What is it, do you think?” asked Margot, when she and Gretta had reached their respective desks, and were seated side by side. “She seemed awfully excited. Oh, and isn’t it a blessing that she didn’t get scarlet fever after all!”
“It’s something about the Hope-Scott Shield, I expect,” answered her cousin. “It’s sure to be, isn’t it? Her father’s told her something. Perhaps----” The clanging of the prayer-bell made further conversation impossible, and the expectant girls had to contain their souls in patience until the evening.
“And _now_, what is it?” demanded Josy, waving her comb and addressing the returned exile excitedly. Half-past eight had struck; the four were in their respective cubicles with the curtains drawn back, and in half an hour the light would be extinguished. “Let’s hear what you said you’d tell us.”
“You remember the ‘Little House’?” asked Stella, her eyes glistening. “Well, it’s about _that_!”