Pursuing her policy of showing proper gratitude to those who had helped her to stay in Harding, Marie asked Helen Adams to have dinner with her at the Tally-ho.
Over the desert she told the story of her afternoon adventure. “I wish I knew whether the fat little one is sick from overeating,” she said, “and whether Dorothy minded the scolding she probably got. I ought to have thought about the consequences, but I never do for myself, and so I didn’t for them. Getting in and out of scrapes is the whole fun of boarding-school, as far as I can see, but those infants said they were honor girls, so I guess they haven’t had as much experience with scrapes as I have. Will Miss Wales be awfully cross at me, do you think, for getting her little sister into a mess?”
Uncertainty on this point kept Marie from asking questions for two days. Then she confided her anxieties to Betty, and persuaded her to go and help find out what had happened when the “honor girls” came home from their belated expedition after medicine.
Dorothy came dancing down-stairs to receive them, flying into Betty’s arms, and wiggling hastily out to offer a polite hand-shake to Marie, who grinned sheepishly, and inquired for Janet.
“She’s all right now,” Dorothy told her, “but she felt pretty sick that night, and she says she doesn’t want any more cream puffs at present and maybe not ever.”
“And did you get scolded for being late?” asked Marie hastily.
“Well, yes, we did,” explained Dorothy. “But it wasn’t your fault a bit, Miss O’Toole. We ought to have said no and stuck to it. Miss Dick said we ought.”
“And did she take you off the honor list?” demanded Marie.
“Well, yes, she did,” admitted the Smallest Sister reluctantly. “For the present she did. She said she felt that she must, as an example, but that she really thought we could be trusted pretty soon again. You see,” the Smallest Sister’s face was very earnest, “you don’t very often meet somebody who will give you the things you want the most of all in the world. We explained all that to Miss Dick, and she said it was an unusual ’sperience to have happen. And Betty dear, ought I to keep the sash and the ribbons and the ring? Miss Dick said I was to ask you about that. Only I—I didn’t tell her about the ring because—because I couldn’t stand it to have her say I mightn’t keep it,” sighed the Smallest Sister despairingly. “And it’s been just awful waiting for you to come, because Miss Dick said it would be best for me to wait till you came, and not on any account to send for you.”
“But wasn’t the school party last night?” asked Marie.