“Oh, may we talk in bed to-night, nurse?” asked the head of the dormitory urgently; “just for a quarter of an hour, because it’s the first night of term! Do, do let us!”
“Well,” said nurse, who, martial though she might be, was not always proof against Josy’s wheedling, “but not a minute longer!” She closed the door as she spoke, and fifteen minutes’ bliss began!
“Let’s take each of the minutes separately!” suggested Stella, a trifle unscrupulously, from her corner of the room.
“No, we won’t; it isn’t fair; you’re wasting a minute by talking about it. I want to ask the new girls all sorts of things while we’re alone, and it’s so ripping talking in bed,” announced Josy. “Do you like feasts, and have you any pocket-money? This is a ripping dormer to be in, you know,” she added ingenuously, “because I’m oldest in it, and there isn’t any really big girl here to order us about!”
“We’re more under nurse, though, down here,” corrected Stella, “and the babies are just opposite, so we can’t make much noise.”
“But nurse is a perfect brick at week-ends!” Josy spoke with unction. “She gave us ten minutes to talk in, every Saturday night last term, and didn’t mind the dormer feast a scrap!”
“Do you have feasts? What fun!” exclaimed Margot, sitting up in bed and peeping through her curtains into the darkness. “We’ve got money, haven’t we, Gretta? Shall we have one this term, Stella?”
“Don’t ask me!” replied that young woman dejectedly. “I go home for week-ends; we only live five miles away. I’m out of nearly all the fun. I’d rather be an out-and-out boarder; you and Josy and Gretta will have it all your own way. I come in for matches, of course, when we have them, but that’s all. It’s not fair to talk about feasts when I’m here, Josy, when I can’t eat them. Talk about the prize instead.”
“All right,” replied Josy with alacrity.
“What’s that?” chorused Gretta and Margot.