Mimi was concentrating again.
The girls separated to single file, Mimi two or three steps ahead. She held her head down and as far to one side as she dared, but she was rolling her eyes frantically to see who was coming up. It wasn’t Mrs. Cole. She was sure of that now, but it was someone she knew. It was Olivia!
Mimi’s first thought was to stop her and confess and pledge her to secrecy. Her second thought was better. She would test her disguise. Slow feet stepping down, down, down. Hurried feet stepping up, up, up. They met. Olivia brushed past and did not recognize either of the girls. Mimi breathed easier. However, it wasn’t a fair test, for Olivia was mumbling: “The drawbridge dropped with a surly clang, and over it a charger sprang, bearing the maiden knight, Sir Launfal.”
Mimi should be studying too. She had memory work piling up again.
“Olivia didn’t know us,” Betsy was whispering with a sigh of relief. “You go on out and walk slowly and I’ll catch up with you before you get out the drive.”
Her pulse pounding, her whole body smothered with excitement and borrowed clothes, Mimi edged her way through the half dozen or more servants and opened the door. True, they eyed her queerly and one large negress snickered out, but if they knew anything was amiss, they did not tell. They had seen stranger “goin’ ons” than this in the years they had worked for the school girls.
As badly as she wanted to run, Mimi shuffled along slowly until Betsy was beside her. Then quickening their gaits, they left the campus behind and turned down College Avenue toward town.
“We did it!” Mimi exclaimed.
“Don’t crow yet.” Betsy cautioned. “Let’s get off this main street. The chemistry prof lives two blocks down.”
Silently they turned down a side street; Mimi recognized it immediately. This was the way the taxi driver had brought her to Sheridan. That day seemed so far away now. It was as if all her life had been lived on a Sheridan schedule.