“Don’t you even know what you’re going to write on or anything that you’re going to say?” asked Betty, who always wrote her papers as soon as they were assigned, to get them off her mind, and who longed to know the secret of waiting serenely until the eleventh hour.
“Why, I had a plan,” answered Mary absently, “but I’ve waited so long that I hardly know if I can use it.”
Just then Alice Waite and her roommate came panting up the hill, and Mary, who seldom took much exercise and was very tired, fell back to the rear of the procession. But when the freshmen stopped in front of the Hilton House she trilled and waved her hand to attract their attention.
“Oh. Betty, please take my skates home,” she said as she limped up to the group. Then she smiled what Roberta had named her “beamish” smile. “I know what you girls are talking about,” she said. “Will you give me a supper at Holmes’s if I’m right?”
“Yes,” said Katherine recklessly, “for you couldn’t possibly guess. What was it?”
“You’re wondering about those fifty freshmen,” answered Mary promptly.
“What freshmen?” demanded the four girls in a chorus, utterly ignoring the lost wager.
“Why, those fifty who, according to a perfectly baseless rumor, are going to be sent home after mid-years.”
“What do you mean?” gasped Betty.
“Hadn’t you heard?” asked Mary soothingly. “Well, I’m sure it will be all over the college by this afternoon. Now understand, I don’t believe it’s true. If it were ten or even twenty it might be, but fifty–why, girls, it’s preposterous!”