There was a prompt and eager chorus of "Yes, Miss St. Leger," and the Principal took her departure, still with that half-smile about her lips.
Kitty found her task strangely congenial, and though according to her own statements she believed in deeds and not words, on this occasion she found it surprisingly easy to be fluent. Perhaps the breathless interest with which she was listened to, broken only by eager questions from one or other of the girls, spurred her on. Not until every smallest detail was described to them were her hearers satisfied.
"I tell you what," announced Paddy loudly, when Kitty had finally come to a full stop. "There's no getting away from the fact, you girls, that we've treated Cato pretty shabbily."
Paddy's remark was unnecessarily obvious. The girls, big and little, looked at each other rather shamefacedly, and were all of the same opinion. Peggy was expressing herself forcibly to her followers:
"Come to think of it, we are rather a lot of chumps, you kids. As if a girl who played the game like Duane did in that match against the school, could do a mean trick like that!"
Then Salome had sprung upon the dais and was speaking:
"There's just another thing, girls. As it happens, far more fuss has been made over the affair that it—it deserves. We must remember that Erica Salter is little more than a child, and did not realize fully what she was doing. I am sure, by Kitty's account, she has suffered enough, and we mustn't be hard on her. The best thing to do is to put the whole affair away and forget it as quickly as we can." She paused a moment, then had one of the "nice" ideas that were part of the secret of Salome's well-deserved popularity, and concluded with a smile, "We won't be nasty to little Erica, if it's only out of regard for all the trouble Duane's taken to try and keep her from being unhappy and miserable."
Everybody signified their assent by stamping on the floor, and Vanda, as a head prefect, also thought it the proper thing to add her opinion:
"We shall have to make it up a bit to Duane for treating her so shabbily, shan't we?"
"Rather!" came an enthusiastic chorus from everybody.