“Listen!” commanded Nan, dramatically. “I have thought of just the place. We can get the goodies brought around from the caterer in Freeling, in a boat, and nobody’ll be the wiser.”
“But where—what?” demanded Bess.
So Nan told her.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE FATEFUL EVENING DRAWS NEAR
Bess Harley had said the discussion of how to spend the five pound note was a serious matter; and when the conference was concluded and the two chums separated to attend different classes, Bess’ countenance certainly looked very grave.
Nan was secretly amused at the way in which her friend had taken the suggestion as to the place at which the proposed feast should be held. The thought had come to Nan in a flash; but to carry the scheme through was to test the courage of some of her school friends.
Bess was too proud, after all, to refuse to meet the terms on which her chum agreed to give the banquet; but it was plain she thought the suggestion a risky one. So she carried a rather glum face to Mademoiselle’s music class, while Nan sought Professor Krenner for—yes!—a lesson in architectural drawing.
Actually, Nan had taken up this elective study. She had demurely marked a cross against that study at first, in a spirit of mischief. She liked queer old Professor Krenner from the start; and she had threatened on the train coming up from Chicago, to become his pupil in the art which he admitted was his hobby. The professor was surprised nevertheless when Dr. Prescott passed Nan’s name over to him without comment.
But once caught in the mesh of his own net, Professor Krenner was game. He put Nan down before him in the classroom, where the boards were for the most part covered with mathematical problems, and began to talk seriously, but in a popular strain, of form, color, and periods of architecture.