“O, all right,—depends upon what you want me to say. I won’t tell any ‘whoppers.’ See me tonight before study hours.”
Isabel went off jubilant. “She’ll do it, girls, but we’ll have to fix it up all right, because Cathalina isn’t the kind of a girl that will write just anything.”
“Make it short and snappy,” said Diane, “like this: ‘Dear Fraulein Carver—May I see you in the library a few minutes before class? Yours, E. F. S.’—or something like that,—however Cathalina wants it.”
As this seemed harmless enough, and none of the girls seemed to realize the fact of deception, Cathalina wrote the message in German script and Ellen F. Smith signed her initials, going into the library to “keep the date with our ‘beloved teacher.’” Lilian who was in the Virgil class, succeeded in placing the note on the desk while Dr. Carver stood near the door conferring with one of the other girls. Then Lilian slipped back into the hall to notify the girl who stood in a retired corner with a cunning gray kitten, its throat tied with a pretty blue ribbon, from which dangled a card. The girls had spent some time thinking over what to put on the card, the most spiteful suggestion being “TO A CAT”. “Be Good To Me; I’m Young,” was Eloise’s idea, but they finally decided to say, “If you don’t like girls, maybe you like kittens,” and one of the girls had spoiled a dozen cards or more in writing it artistically.
Cathalina had been worried over the kitten part of the performance and made the girls solemnly promise that they would prop open a crack in the cover of the old-fashioned desk.
“Don’t worry, Cathalina, we aren’t cruel,” said Diane, pretending to be offended.
“O, I know that, Diane!”
The class, as usual, was gathering in the back part of the room, near the windows, in little groups, some listening while a good student read the hard passages to them. There was then, no difficulty in placing the kitten without notice. And when, after a little, a scratching and mewing began, the last bell rang, and Dr. Carver came in radiant. She located the cat instantly, while the girls were taking their regular places, held it up with a sarcastic smile in full view of the class, an unsmiling company, carried the meek animal to the door, dropped it in the hall and shut the door with more of a bang, doubtless, than she had intended.
That was all there was of incident, and Dr. Carver was so absent-minded, letting one recitation after another pass without comment or correction, that the girls dared to let their own minds wander from the text long enough to wonder what was the matter.
“Cat and all and the Doctor scarcely mad!” Lilian whispered as the class left the room.