"Then, Miss Marian Austin—a pretty name by the way; I don't wonder that you selected it—we'll let you two off when you hang by your toes from that bar."
"Oh no, that's too hard," objected Janet. "They might fall and hurt themselves badly, Cordelia. I don't see why you want to insist upon their staying."
"Thank you," said Miss Austin. "I am glad we have one friend at court in our extremity, Miss Ferguson. Oh you needn't look surprised. I remember your names, and if I should have to complain to my uncle—"
"Dear me," interrupted Teddy hastily, "don't make them stay, Cordelia."
"I have said." Cordelia made the statement grandly. "We are not going to retreat from the stand we have taken; whatever 1904 is, she is not cowardly."
"Hear, hear," arose accompanied by a soft clapping of hands from the class.
"But," continued Cordelia, "I am willing to compromise by giving them something dead easy. Don't you believe you could skin the cat, Miss Austin?"
"No, that is too hard," protested Janet. "I don't call that dead easy."
After some parley, it was agreed that if each of the two girls would turn a somersault she might be excused. They did it with not very good grace, and then donned their street clothes.
"I don't like you college girls one bit," said Marian Austin just as she reached the door, "and I hope I'll never see one of you again. There are only two of you who have any sort of claim to being anything but wild hoodlums, and they are Janet Ferguson and Teddy What's-her-name. Come, Trix."