Beth laughed. “Did you ever get caught at one of these parties?”
“Never mind about that! We’ll go to-night. All work and no play makes Jill just as dull as her brother.”
“We’ll do our tasks first, dear,” said Beth.
She was not a prude; but she felt herself in honor bound to keep up with all her lessons. She had been at Rivercliff long enough to know that she could not earn her diploma in any easy way. To fall back one recitation would mean hard effort to make it up. There were no delays for the slow and inattentive under Miss Hammersly.
Beth, of course, had written home several times. She had told the home folk of all the interesting things she had encountered thus far in her school life, and about her teachers and the students as she had met them with the one exception of Maude Grimshaw. She had not mentioned that haughty and purse-proud girl. Beth hoped she would never be obliged to come in contact with Maude again. She thought that, by letting her unpleasant neighbor strictly alone, Maude would let her alone.
She was yet to learn the fallacy of this belief—as well as much else that Beth could never have learned anywhere but at Rivercliff School.
CHAPTER XV
THE RED MASQUE
The two chums working in Number Eighty, South Wing, Rivercliff School, closed their books before the retiring bell rang at nine-thirty, fully satisfied with what they had accomplished.
“No use climbing into bed, Bethesda,” said Molly, with a yawn. “Just get into something comfortable—of course, your kimono—and we’ll put out the lights at the proper time.”
“Why—will anybody look in?”