Straight looked after her half admiringly, half angrily. “Just the same I don’t believe she thought it up. She’s the best bluffer that ever came to Harding. Smile, look mysterious, say nothing—that’s her trick-play, and it always scores. I wonder why she was so crazy to come to Harding. I certainly must ask Betty if she ever has wondered why her freshman was so stuck on Harding College.”
Then, as her twin rushed up with a reminder that it was time to dress for the team dinner, “Yes, Fluffy,” Straight answered absently, “I’m coming this very minute. But I certainly should like to know—nothing you can tell me, Fluff; so don’t ask me to stop and explain.”
CHAPTER XIII
MONTANA MARIE AND THE PROM. MAN SUPPLY COMPANY
Montana Marie had dozens of invitations to spend the spring vacation with college friends. But she declined them all. “You see, Ma misses me a lot,” she explained, “and she’s been counting on coming East to help me buy my spring clothes. So I guess I can’t very well disappoint her.”
So Mrs. and Miss O’Toole became for a week leading features of New York’s largest and showiest hotel; and there various of Marie’s New York friends, encountering the pair in the corridors or the tea-room, or dining wonderfully behind a screen of hovering waiters, were treated to samples of Mrs. O’Toole’s choice observations, couched in Mrs. O’Toole’s choice English. Sometimes Marie giggled amiably at her mother’s remarks, and sometimes she explained “what Ma really means to say.” But she never appeared embarrassed, never showed annoyance, and never though invitations were again showered upon her, accepted one that did not include Mrs. O’Toole.
“You see Ma’s been expecting a good time this week,” she explained simply. “She’s come way from California to see me, and so I guess I can’t leave her alone much.”
And for every girl who made fun of Mrs. O’Toole, there was another to defend Marie’s loyalty; so that she went back for her spring term at Harding more talked about than ever, more laughed at, and more stoutly championed.
Having discovered the rules of true concentration, Marie had plenty of time for recreation, especially now that soft April breezes had melted hard faculty hearts, and spring-term standards made life easy. She entered into all the season’s diversions with her customary zest, but the event that fairly stirred her soul was the junior prom. For one day—nay, two,—the Harding campus would be black with men! Montana Marie sighed joyously at this pleasing prospect, and listened eagerly to the plans, hopes, fears, and disappointments that preluded the great occasion.
Connie wasn’t going to the prom., Montana Marie discovered to her horror. The idea of missing your junior prom.!
“Why aren’t you going?” she demanded incisively.