“’Tisn’t a rule, it’s simply a custom,” Ann told her. “It just never happened before, that the Sophomores showed very much brains.”
“But, oh my beloved hearers!” Gladys exclaimed excitedly, “can’t you see that our Phyllis and our Taffy may be the brilliant exceptions?”
Janet had looked wonderingly from one to the other of the girls.
“You don’t mean Phil and Taffy could possibly make the Dramatic Club?” she asked at length.
“But I exactly do mean just that,” Gladys informed her. “And, oh my Aunt Jane’s Poll-parrot, if they should, think what a victory it would be for the Old Wing!”
Prue picked up the book that she had been reading when Sally and Janet interrupted her.
“I refuse to think of it,” she said with decision. “Come on, girls, sit down and make yourselves comfy, and in my most dulcet tones I will read to you the lesson in Guy Mannering for tomorrow.”
Janet and Sally curled up on the end of the Countess’s bed and Prue began.
It is a question whether any of the girls kept their mind on the book. The Dramatic Club at Hilltop was a very important institution of school life. There were hardly ever more than twelve members, and they were chosen for a variety of reasons. The principal one was an understanding and appreciation of literature, but equally important were good looks and an ability to act, for the Dramatic Club gave two plays a year. They were not the usual amateur performances, for wise Miss Slocum, with the aid of the Seniors, chose her material carefully and trained it exceedingly well.
She had hesitated a long time before suggesting two Sophomores for possible membership, but Daphne’s bewildering beauty and Phyllis’s apt reading of lines finally persuaded her.