Mr. Mudge bowed and withdrew. His boots creaked down the hall a little way and then we heard a knock and the opening of a door.
“Girls, he’s calling on Miss Noakes,” Winnie cried, in high glee. “Now, what’s to hinder my running out on the balcony and showing her that two can play at the game of peek-a-boo.”
“Nothing but the honour of the Amen Corner,” Adelaide remarked. The words threw a wet blanket on Winnie’s proposal, but there was a flickering smile about Adelaide’s lips which showed that she was bent upon mischief, a rare thing for Adelaide.
“I will wait until Mr. Mudge is gone,” she said,—“I would not interrupt two young lovers for the world,—and then I think I’ll call on Miss Noakes. I want her to help me translate the visit of Æneas to Queen Dido.”
“That’s just like Winnie,” Milly exclaimed; “but you would never do such a thing.”
“Won’t I? You don’t half know me, Milly, dear,” and Adelaide actually fulfilled her threat.
“She expected him,” Adelaide exclaimed, when she returned. “I found her all gotten up regardless—that low-necked black net of hers! She did look too absurd for anything, but happy is no name for it. There was a blush on her withered old cheeks, and I actually believe a real tear in her eye. When I told her what I wanted her to translate, she glared at me haughtily, but I looked as demure as I could, and she went through it without flinching. ‘Men are deceivers ever, aren’t they, Miss Noakes?’ I said. ‘Just think of Pious Æneas behaving so cruelly to his dear Dido.’ ‘How should I know, child?’ she replied rather curtly.”
While we were laughing, Cerberus knocked to inform us that Mrs. Roseveldt’s carriage waited and had sent him to inquire for Miss Armstrong.
Adelaide found that Stacey had waited for her return. He woke to animation over the photographs. “This decides me,” he said. “I shall try for the prize. I didn’t imagine there was anything in Greek civilization that I cared a rap for; but that quoit player is fine. Just look at his muscles. I always thought that Discobolus was the fellow’s name. It never dawned upon me that it meant a quoit player. And this Mercury hardly needs wings on his heels, his legs are built for a runner. And isn’t that Fighting Gladiator superb? And that Hercules and Vulcan? Well, now, here is something curious. I do believe that Baker got his ‘set’ from that statue; the left arm is extended in the very same way, and the boys all thought it was original with him.”