“I’ve found you out,” she announced blandly. “I’ve stayed through three of these one-act Japanese plays of yours, and you’re impostors. You don’t know two words of Japanese between you.”
“You’re mistaken, Christy,” said Madeline. “We know at least a dozen that our little Japanese friend taught us, though I won’t vouch for our pronunciation. Wasn’t Professor Jones lovely?”
“Yes,” said Christy briefly, “but tell me, how do you ever manage it?”
“Oh, it’s easy enough,” returned Madeline. “I’ve been to the Chinese theatre a lot and that helped, because most people don’t know that the two languages are as the poles apart. Then we’ve both seen ‘The Darling of the Gods,’ and Roberta is fine at inventing gibberish.”
“And at getting it off with a sober face,” added Christy.
“That’s why I allowed her to take part in my one-act Japanese play—or series of plays, I should say. It gets too monotonous, doing nonsense over and over in the same way, so we change.”
“And get caught,” finished Christy, making ready to depart. “But I won’t tell. I’m going to try to make Professor Eaton come in here.”
But Professor Eaton, though he had cheerfully bought tickets galore for the tea, did not patronize it in person.
“It doesn’t matter though,” said Madeline. “He’s got Georgia, and she’s going to be a handful when she gets started.”