This horned owl was no more solemn than were the girls themselves who came filing in behind their leader. They came in two by two and circled around the work table which was set across the room at the foot of the two beds. The second couple bore a big tea-tray and on that tray reposed—the forgotten lunch box Bess had dropped under the supper table!
Poor Bess uttered a horrified gasp; Nan came near disgracing herself in her chum’s eyes forever, by exploding into laughter. There was a faint giggle from some hysterical girl down the line and the leader rapped smartly upon the floor with the handle of the decorated broom.
“Ladies!” ejaculated the leader, her voice somewhat muffled behind the pillowslip.
“Votes for women!” was the faint response from somewhere in the line.
“Silence in the ranks!” exclaimed Laura Polk, snatching the tin tray away from her partner and banging on it with her fist. The lunch box, decorated with a soiled bow of violet ribbon, had been placed on the table.
“Ladies!” repeated the girl behind the mask. “We have with us to-night, in our very midst, as it were, two sawneys who should be [initiated into all the rites and mysteries of Lakeview Hall].”
“Hear! hear!” sepulchrally came from the red-haired girl.
“You’d better keep still, too, Laura,” admonished another girl.
“Oh! very well!” answered Laura.
“These sawneys must be taught their place,” pursued the leader of the gay company.