Polly's First Year at Boarding School Part 6

answered Lois, dropping down beside her.

Betty folded her arms in solemn dignity and stood looking at the two girls on the steps.

"Is it possible, my children," she began, in a voice ridiculously like the school chaplain's, "I repeat, is it possible that you have failed to grasp the full significance of this day's work? Where were your eyes, and have you lost the sense necessary for putting two and two together?"

Polly and Lois looked at her with puzzled expressions.

"Elucidate, Elizabeth, if you please," called a voice from the top of the stairs, accompanied by the click-click of a pair of Chinese slippers. Startled, the girls looked up, half expecting to see Miss Hale descending upon them, but beheld, instead, Angela's grinning face and curly hair above a pale blue woolly wrapper.

"Hey, make room there, you two!" she continued in her own voice, and as she slipped in between Lois and Polly, she added:

"I repeat, elucidate, Elizabeth."

"Lordy," Betty murmured, "what a shock you gave me! The Spartan's had it in for me and I've been trying to dodge her all day. But to continue, you all seem to have lost your share of intelligence. Did you or did you not see Louise Preston and some of the big team girls watching the game?

They were writing giddy little lists and having all kinds of solemn powwows with Miss Stuart. Well, the reason is-"

"Stop!" exclaimed Polly. "Betty, you're positively leaping at conclusions. You said yourself no Freshman had ever been chosen."

"And besides," interrupted Lois, "you're making my heart beat twice as fast as it ought to."

"Well, of course," Angela remarked, getting up and stretching, "there's no doubt in my mind that I will be chosen for the sub team. As for the rest of you, you have a chance."

"You!" howled Betty. "A spoofy sub you'd make. You'd be helping Caesar build his old bridges every time the ball came your way."

Lois looked intently ahead of her.

"Now," she said, "I understand why Bet made all those fouls. Pure flunk, we'd have all done the same thing if we'd known we were being watched.

And you never told us-Bet, you're a darling."

"I didn't mean that. I was done for, of course, and I knew it. But pa.s.s on the merry news? Certainly not." And Betty, having delivered her pet phrase, made for her bath and slammed the door.

Thursday and Friday mornings pa.s.sed somehow and the fatal hour arrived.

Because of no school on Sat.u.r.day, the Friday evening study hour was omitted. The time was usually taken up by a lecture or a musical.

There was nothing on for tonight, however, and after dinner the girls collected in the a.s.sembly Hall. Miss Stuart, Louise Preston, and the team were on the platform, and in a few minutes the names of the chosen subst.i.tutes were to be read.

Betty, Lois, Polly, Angela, and Connie wandered off together to the farthest corner of the room and tried to look indifferent. Betty s.h.i.+vered.

"Shades of the Tower of London," she whispered. "I couldn't feel any creepier if it were the Black List that was going to be read."

"It is uncanny," agreed Connie. "I never miss less than four b.a.l.l.s out of every five and yet I feel strangely excited."

Lois and Polly exchanged understanding glances, and then every one began to say hush, and Miss Stuart and Louise stood up on the platform. When everything was quiet, Miss Stuart began:

"Good evening, girls. The captain has asked me to read this list for her. It's the names of the subst.i.tutes. If you will answer by coming up to the platform, it will save time and keep the cheering for the end.

"'First, for guard, Mary Rhine, Junior.

Second, for guard, Edith Fisk, Soph.o.m.ore.

Third, for home, Helen Nash, Soph.o.m.ore.

Fourth, for home, Lois Farwell, Freshman.'"

(And in spite of the gasp of surprise, Miss Stuart continued as if she had said nothing surprising.)

"'Fifth, for center, Flora Illington, Soph.o.m.ore.

Sixth, for jumping center, Marianna Pendleton, Freshman.'

"Congratulations, girls, and may-" Miss Stuart's voice was completely drowned in the cheer that went up.

Some one dragged Connie to the piano, and for the rest of the evening they sang school and basket-ball songs and cheered all the six subs in turn.

Of course Polly and Lois were wildly happy, and the entire Freshman cla.s.s shared in their joy. They boasted of having broken a record and reminded everybody of what might be expected of them when they were lofty Seniors.

It was only when Polly and Lois were alone in their rooms after the "lights out" bell, that they remembered Betty.

Fifteen minutes later, when everything was very quiet along the corridor, two ghost-like figures stole out of two doors and met at a third across the way, and tapped gently.

Betty sat up in bed.

"Who is it?" she whispered.

"It's Polly," answered one ghost.

"It's Lois," answered the other.

A minute later, when they were both curled up on the bed, Lois found Betty's hand and squeezed it.

"Betty, dear, I'm so sorry," she said.

"So am I," agreed Polly. "It's the only disappointment in this glorious day."

"You know you're cut up about it, dear; no use pretending," pursued Lois.

"We saw you leave long before the bell. Oh, Bet-" but Polly was cut short.

"Saw me leave? I should think you might have; I didn't leave; I fled.

But not because-well not because of what you think, I saw the Spartan coming."

"Then you were not in the 'blues' all evening?" asked Lois doubtingly.

"Certainly not," Betty a.s.sured her. "I was studying my Latin, and now do let me go to sleep."

It sounded very well, but as Polly and Lois each gave her a good-night kiss, they noticed a suspicious dampness about her pillow.

They stole safely back to their rooms, conscious of having broken a rule for a good cause and, who knows, perhaps it was because the cause was good that they were not caught.

CHAPTER V