"Oh, just rag them a little somehow. It would be rather sport."
"Plans for sport in ragtime wanted! All offers carefully considered. Now, then, bring on your suggestions."
Everybody stared hopefully at everybody else, but no one rose to the occasion.
"Going—going—going—a first-rate opportunity for mirth-provoking——"
"Could we get them into the passage and one of us hide behind the curtain of the barred room and act ghost?" proposed Romola desperately.
Her suggestion, however, was received with utter scorn.
"Can't you think of anything more original than that?"
"We're fed up with that ghost trick. Nobody even calls it funny now."
"Besides, Miss Birks said she'd punish anyone who did it again. She was awfully angry last time."
Duly squashed, Romola subsided, and the silence which followed resembled that of a Quakers' meeting.