“Mother told me to tell you, only I forgot because there’s been so much to think about, that she has something important to say to you. She meant to tell you to-day.”
“Oh, yes,” said Gretta sleepily; “it was in that letter——”
“Yes, but she said, too, that she might come over to-morrow; and, if so, she’d have a talk with you. I don’t know what it is, but I believe Miss Slater knows; and mother, if she comes, will be able to tell us about our old man and Long Jake.”
The silence that fell again upon Dormitory 3 was not broken until seven o’clock the next morning. It is likely that Gretta would not have slept so soundly had she known what her aunt’s news was to be.
CHAPTER XIX
NEWS FOR GRETTA
“JUST think!” said Josy, stretching luxuriously in her bed, as she made up her mind for the fiftieth time that it was her duty to rise. “The match is over, and well over—hurrah for Helen!—the dormer-feast’s all eaten, and I jolly well feel as though I’d had the whole of it; we’ve got past half-term, and now—well, what is there to look forward to?” She gazed appealingly at her two companions, who, both in different stages of undress, were flying through their Sunday toilet.
“Well, I should think you’re half asleep still if you’ve forgotten the Hope-Scott Shield,” declared Margot, emerging from a basin of cold water. “Do hurry, Josy, or nurse will be simply wild!”
“Forget it! Who could forget it?” grumbled Josy. “It’s on the tips of my fingers to do something brave every day of my life, and I’ve never done anything yet.” She scrambled out of bed as she spoke, and, in the intervals of dressing, continued her remarks: “I’ve a jolly good mind to get Stella to pretend to drown next time we’re in the baths. Her pigtail’s long enough to rescue her by, and then——!”
“Josy, you’re simply frightful!” laughed Gretta. “You’d never get it for that! Margot might, now, for yesterday; do you think she could?” She gazed admiringly at her cousin, who stood in her petticoats, transfixed with amazement at the suggestion.
“Me! I like that! It’s plain you never heard what Miss Slater said to me last night when I got back. She made me feel jolly small, I can tell you—about going off like that.” Margot brushed her hair vigorously, looking rather shamefaced.