"I didn't ask him," she remarked, with exasperating calm.
"No doubt you didn't," retorted Carol heatedly, "but perhaps he told you without being asked."
"Perhaps he did," returned the Imp, "and perhaps he told me a lot more. However, I must say bye-bye for the present. I've got to go and study my lessons somewhere where I won't be disturbed!"
She scrambled down and sailed out of the room, waving airily to them from the doorway.
"Isn't she simply maddening!" exclaimed Sue. "The idea of saying she had to go and study! I never knew her to study a thing in my life. She seems to know her lessons by instinct."
"But what do you suppose Louis told her?" mused Carol.
"Not much, or I miss my guess," returned Sue. "She's only trying to tease us. But it is strange that he stayed home to-day. Something serious must be the matter. He hasn't missed a day this term before."
"But if it was serious," argued Carol, "why should he be out playing with the Imp?"
At this moment the door opened and a tall, slender boy of seventeen or eighteen strolled in, his hands in his overcoat pockets, his cheeks and overcoat still wet with the driving rain.
"Hello, girls!" he remarked, warming his hands by the blaze of the open fire.