“Polo, Mr. Mudge, not tennis. Her name is Polo, a contraction for Pauline,” said Adelaide.
“Very extraordinary name. Lawn tennis is a much more suitable game for a young lady. Who is she, anyway?”
“She is a model, and a very good girl. Polo is above suspicion,” Winnie remarked authoritatively.
“Hum—of course,” replied Mr. Mudge. “Let me see, this Base-ball must be the young lady of whom Miss Noakes spoke to Madame as having conducted herself in a rather peculiar manner night before last, the evening of the subterranean entertainment.”
We all looked up in surprise, and Mr. Mudge continued:
“Madame has confided to me the fact that you young ladies were unpleasantly intruded upon by certain unknown persons, who may, or may not, have been connected with one of our well known schools. Madame felt that they could not have effected their entrance and disguise without the connivance of some member of this household. This individual need not necessarily have been one of the young ladies; it may have been a servant. I have known it to be a fact that the chamber-maids at Vassar have carried on flirtations with young gentlemen who supposed themselves to be in correspondence with Vassar girls. Now it is quite possible that your chambermaid may have heard of this frolic and have mentioned it to her admirers.”
“Oh, no,” we all exclaimed; while Adelaide continued: “We never mentioned it in her presence; besides, she is as stupid and honest as she is old and homely. I would as soon suspect Miss Noakes.”
“But this Lawn Tennis, I beg pardon, Base-ball, of whom we were just speaking, is neither stupid, nor old, nor ugly, and we know very little in regard to her honesty——”
“That is so,” Cynthia assented, and we all turned and scowled upon her.
“You tell me that she possesses a key to the turret door, and now Miss Noakes’s testimony fits in like the pieces in a Chinese puzzle. On the afternoon of your entertainment Miss Noakes says that a request was preferred from you to allow Lawn Tennis—no, Croquet—to share Miss Vaughn’s bedroom for the night. Miss Noakes says she felt a strange hesitancy about granting this request——”