“Lovely thought,” laughed Madeline. “Couldn’t you find any sad hearts around here but toads?”
“Grasshoppers,” said Bob, promptly, “but they’re about gone now, poor things. Next spring I’m going to have a grasshopper class in high jumping. It’s a shame the way they let you zoölogy fiends catch them for easy victims.”
“Bob,” said Madeline, admiringly, “you are certainly a genius. I was thinking to-day that ‘The Merry Hearts’ needed a boom. We haven’t done anything so far except organize.” Madeline swirled suddenly into the darkness. “At the next meeting I believe I shall propose a new member—just to liven things up a bit.”
Bob shrugged her shoulders, frowning. “If it’s Eleanor Watson, I don’t want her,” she said. “I know Betty does and Betty’s a dear, and what she says goes with the B’s. We’re going to be nice to the freaks, but we don’t want Eleanor Watson.”
“Don’t worry,” laughed Madeline. “It’s not Eleanor. It’s quite a different person, Bob,—quite one of your sort.”
The music from the gym stopped suddenly, and Madeline consulted her card. “Let me see—two, three, four. Yes, the next is five, and I have it with an adoring freshman. Good-bye, Bob,—and please don’t black-ball my new member.”
CHAPTER IV
GEORGIA WIDENS HER SPHERE
Quite by accident Roberta Lewis was the first person to whom Madeline confided the story of Georgia Ames. Roberta happened to pass through the hall just as Madeline came back from getting some corrected English themes, among them two of Georgia’s, with very flattering comments from Dr. Eaton; and finding the story too good to keep, she called Roberta in to share it. She could not have chosen a more appreciative confidante.