"Well?" she said, serenely. "Peggy, you seem to be the leader of the party."
Peggy gulped. "We—we—were only having a supper down in the common-room."
"Oh, I see. That was what I surmised. There's generally some light refreshment attached to your little affairs. Most thrilling! Barbara, suppose you tell me what were the eatables in this repast of yours."
Barbara giggled. It seemed to be an incurable affliction with her. "Oh—er—sandwiches and cakes and—and lemon jelly. We took our soap dishes down to eat it from and made it in a Moab—I mean a wash-jug. And—and," here Barbara, rather singularly, hesitated and blushed furiously, "pork pies."
"H'm. Quite a feast! I almost wish I had been invited," murmured the head prefect. "Pork pies, too! Now, I wonder—" she paused, as a sudden thought struck her, and repeated again, "pork pies! Of course, there isn't any connexion between the—er—title of your society and that article of diet? I have often wondered what P. Squared stood for."
The faces of the juniors were a study. Peggy boiled over with rage.
"Yes, that's where we did get the title from," she flung out defiantly, "and—and—it's beastly mean of you to get it out of us like this. I half believe somebody told you."
"No, no, merely intuition—aided by Barbara's self-conscious blush," assured Duane. "I suppose the eating of pork pies at the beginning of each meeting constitutes a sacred ceremony. Oh well, I was young myself once. You do great credit to Miss Green's teaching. I must congratulate you on the intelligent way in which you have learnt algebra. Correlation of subjects, too, is one of the modern crazes."
She rose to her feet.
"Well, thank you for your frankness. I will think the matter over and decide on the sentence. There's dinner bell, so you'd better clear," and at the words of dismissal from the head prefect, who had become aware that the other two seniors were no longer able to control their merriment, the nine juniors gladly made their escape. As they disappeared Hilary's face sobered suddenly. She turned to Duane.