Just Patty | Page 6

questioningly to Miss
Wadsworth.
She nodded unhappily.
"Yesterday was Priscilla's birthday, and she received a box from her
aunt. This being Friday night, I gave her permission--"
"Certainly." The Dowager turned to the tragic figure in the center of the
floor. "It is Priscilla's room as much as yours and--"
Keren plunged into a sea of words. The four leaned forward in a
strained endeavor to pluck some sense from the torrent.
"They used my bed for a table because it wasn't against the wall, and
Patty tipped a pot of chocolate over in the middle of it. She said it was
an accident--but she did it on purpose--I know she did! And because I
objected, Priscilla said it wasn't polite to notice when a guest spilled
anything, and she tipped a glass of current jelly on my pillow, to make
Patty feel comfortable. That was the polite thing for a hostess to do, she
said; they learned it last year in manner class. And the chocolate soaked
right through, and Conny Wilder said it was fortunate I was thin,
because I could sleep in a curve around it; if it had happened to Irene
McCullough, she would have had to sleep in it, because she's so big she
takes up the whole bed. And Priscilla said I could be thankful
to-morrow's Saturday when we get clean sheets; it might have

happened so that I would have had to sleep in that puddle of chocolate
a whole week. And then the "Lights-out" rang, and they left me to clean
up, and the housekeeper's gone to bed, and I can't get any fresh bed
clothes, and I won't sleep that way! I'm not used to sleeping in
chocolaty sheets. I don't like America and I hate girls."
Tears were dripping from Keren's cheeks onto the fire-breathing
dragons below. The Dowager, without comment, rose and rang the bell.
"Katie," she said, as the maid on duty appeared at the door, "some fresh
sheets for Miss Keren, please, and remake her bed. That will do for
to-night, Keren. Get to sleep as quickly as possible, and don't talk. You
mustn't disturb the other girls. We can see about changing room-mates
to-morrow."
Katie and the outraged dragons withdrew.
A silence followed, while Miss Wadsworth and Mademoiselle
exchanged glances of despair, and Miss Lord buckled on her war
armor.
"You see!" she said, with a suggestion of triumph, "when they get to
the point of persecuting a poor little--"
"In my experience of school life," said Mrs. Trent judicially, "it is a
girl's own fault when she is persecuted. Their methods are crude, but to
the point. Keren is a hopeless little prig--"
"But at least you can't allow her to suffer--"
"Oh, no, I shall do what I can toward peace. To-morrow morning,
Keren can move in with Irene McCullough, and Patty and Conny and
Priscilla go back to their old rooms in the West Wing. You,
Mademoiselle, are somewhat inured--"
"I do not mind them together. They are just--what you
say?--exhilarating. It is when they are spread out that it is difficult."

"You mean," Miss Lord stared--"that you are going to reward their
disgraceful conduct? It is exactly what they have been working for."
"You must acknowledge," smiled the Dowager, "that they have worked
hard. Perseverance deserves success."
* * * * *
The next morning, Patty and Conny and Priscilla, their arms running
over with dresses and hats and sofa cushions, gaily two-stepped down
the length of "Paradise Alley" while a relieved school assisted at the
flitting. As they caught sight of Miss Lord hovering in the offing, they
broke into the chorus of a popular school song:
"We like to go to chapel And listen to the preachers, We are happy in
our work, And we dearly love our teachers. Daughters of Saint
Ur-su-la!"

II
The Romantic History of Cuthbert St. John
"The Dowager" had a very sensible theory that boarding-school girls
should be kept little girls, until their school life was over, and they
stepped out, fresh and eager and spontaneous, to greet the grown-up
world. Saint Ursula's was a cloister, in fact, as in name. The masculine
half of the human species was not supposed to count.
Sometimes a new girl was inclined to turn up her nose at the youthful
pastimes that contented her companions. But in the end she would be
drawn irresistibly into the current. She would learn to jump rope and
roll hoops; to participate in paper chases 'cross country; to skate and
coast and play hockey on winter afternoons, to enjoy molasses-candy
pulls and popcorn around the big open fire on Saturday nights, or
impromptu masquerades, when the school raided the trunks in the attic
for costumes. After a few weeks' time, the most spoiled