“Right away!” Gale declared and true to her word snatched up her tennis racquet and departed forthwith.
After their impromptu meeting at the Kopper Kettle the girls were to play tennis until dinner time. They all had their tennis racquets, that is all but Phyllis. When she appeared, even after Gale, the others noted the lack of the important equipment if she was to play with them.
“You can’t play!” Janet cried in disappointment.
“No,” Phyllis said briefly, seating herself beside Valerie, “I can’t play and what is more—I won’t be going to college with you.”
“What’s that?” Carol demanded. “Do you mean to say that after all this——”
“What I mean to say is that since you are going to Stonecliff my Aunt has decided to send me to Briarhurst. Whichever one you go to I shall probably go to the other. Now when I want to go to Stonecliff——”
“You can just keep on wanting,” Madge said delightedly, “because we aren’t going there.”
Phyllis looked at the smiling faces about her in bewilderment. “But you all said——”
“What we said was said for your Aunt’s especial benefit,” Carol explained. “Remember I said we would have to use strategy in bringing your Aunt around to our way of thinking? She still doesn’t think as we do, but nevertheless we accomplished what we set out to do.”
“I don’t understand,” Phyllis murmured. “First you were going to Briarhurst, now you aren’t——”