“I think so!” exclaimed Diane. “Helen and I have worked all week; catch us trying it again! Me for a tightrope performance or something easy!”
Two sleepy girls were left in the suite after the guests had gathered up their kimonos and departed, with promises to come in the next day for a second lunch on the remains. Hilary threw herself into a chair and looked at the table with a comical expression. “That’s the mischief! eleven o’clock and all this mess to clear up!” But Cathalina was already gathering up the bones and crumbs, shaking them into one big paper, and putting the good things into the various pasteboard boxes.
“Never mind, Hilary. It’s your birthday and you supplied all these lovely eats, so I’ll clean up. Go to bed, Hilary. If my mother could only see how I’ve reformed, she would be proud of her little Cathalina.”
Hilary sprang up protesting, and in a twinkle the table was cleared, the embroidered runner and books put back and the soiled china and silver piled in the big cocoa kettle “till tomorrow”.
“I’m glad we can’t wash the dishes tonight.”
“Yes, the fudge room is locked by this time.”
“And we’d wake everybody up there or anywhere we were prowling.”
“Set the alarm for six, please, Hilary. Isn’t it awful? I have to copy a theme before first hour class!”
Twelve restless heads tossed on twelve rumpled pillows. Hilary dreamed that she was playing basketball with a Scotch Highlander eight or ten feet tall, who always managed to get the ball and just reach over to drop it through the basket! Cathalina’s dreams took the form of strange animals in cages, clowns and swinging elephants; and once a reproachful looking chicken, as large as an ostrich, stretched his neck between the bars of a gloomy cage and pulled out by the roots a braid of Cathalina’s long hair!