“Oh! it’s cruelty to give us viva voces! I’ll never dare to answer a question!” wailed Aveline.
“I’m afraid he’ll be strict,” admitted Katherine.
“Perhaps he’s nervous too, and scared of us!” suggested Morvyth.
“Don’t you believe it!” laughed Raymonde scornfully. “I flatter myself I’m pretty good at reading faces, and I can see at a glance he’s a martinet. That frown gives him away, and the kind of glare he has in his eyes. I’m a believer in first impressions, and I knew in a second I wasn’t going to like him.”
Aveline sighed dramatically.
“It’s rough on a poor young girl in her early teens to be put through an ordeal by a stern and elderly individual who’ll have absolutely no consideration for her feelings.”
“Feelings! You’ll have your head snapped off!” prophesied Raymonde.
“Why couldn’t the Bumble have examined us herself, or at any rate let the Professor do it?”
“Ask me a harder, child!”
“Well, I think it’s very unnecessary to have this Mr. Beasley. Bumble Bee, indeed! He’s a regular hornet!”