Mrs. White evidently felt complimented by the invitation. She was looking it over when the girls entered.
"Of course you won't refuse, Mrs. White, will you?" Sue implored, arms about Mrs. White's shoulders. "Billy quite dotes on you, you know. He says in my note that you've just got to come. He and Hammie will accept no substitute. Billy would be so awfully disappointed if you didn't come."
Mrs. White smiled pleasantly.
"I wouldn't hurt Billy for the world, Susan," she said. The teachers always called Sue "Susan"—those who had known her since her entrance as a very young girl. "You know I never inflict unnecessary pain. I happen to know just how hard your friends would take my refusal. I will consult Miss North."
"Will you? Will you really? Oh, you are such a dear, Mrs. White. And try to show her how very necessary it is for us all to go. Billy does get so lonely without me—we're such chums. Father feels dreadfully to have us separated as we are."
Mrs. White promised to put the matter before Miss North as diplomatically as possible, and let the girls know her decision at the earliest possible moment.
"I think afternoon tea is the loveliest thing," Sue said, as they went back to Blue Bonnet's room for a brief visit. "There's something about it that makes one feel so grown up—so sort of lady-like! I've always said that when I keep house—I shall, you know, for father, as soon as I am through school—that I'll serve tea every afternoon, rain or shine, at five o'clock, and advertise the fact among all my friends."
"It's very hospitable," Blue Bonnet replied absently. "Do they have tea every afternoon at Harvard?"
Sue gave a shriek; then she went off into one of her infectious peals of laughter.
"Blue Bonnet! Oh, that's ripping! At Harvard. What do you take them for?"