“You are too capable, Shirley. You can’t get out of things like that.”
The next morning Shirley, going upstairs, met Sidney coming down; but instead of the usual courteous greeting from Sidney, she passed with her head in the air and without looking at Shirley. Shirley frowned thoughtfully and went on to her room. Was Sidney blaming her for the costume affair?
At her first opportunity, she reported the cut to Madge and asked if she could tell Caroline to come to their room after classes at noon. “There is no need of Sidney Thorne’s taking such an attitude toward me,” Shirley said. “I shall go to her to-day and ask her what the trouble is, apologize, if I have done anything, or receive her explanation. I do not think that she is the sort of a girl who would refuse one.”
Shirley repeated to Madge what she had overheard and asked Madge if it would be best to repeat it to Caroline.
“No, Shirley,” said Madge. “Of course, you want to get at the bottom of this, but it will only make Caroline mad to tell her what Sidney said, when Sid was out of patience, too. We’ll just ask Caroline if she knows how it happened that Sidney wore the witch suit.”
Shirley agreed with Madge that this would be the best course. The less trouble stirred up the better. But Shirley was surprised to realize how it troubled her to have a misunderstanding with Sidney.
Before lunch, Caroline, with her arms full of books, rushed in on her way from class. A little tap on the door was all that announced her arrival, and she pushed the door open without waiting for an invitation. “Hello, Cad,” said Madge. “I waited for you, till I saw that you were going to be too long.”
“Yes, I thought that Miss Gibson would never let me go. Here are all the books that I have to read for my essay on—what is it that I have to write about?” Caroline with a look of pretended ignorance, consulted a large sheet of paper filled with notes.
“Never mind that,” laughed Madge. “We want to ask you how it happened that Sidney wore the yellow cat witch costume? Do you know anything about it? Has Hope said anything, or any of the Double Three?”
“What makes you think that I know anything about what Sidney wore? Did she really do that? That certainly is a joke on her!” Caroline was so absorbed in the idea that she forgot to push the question why they thought she would know about it.