“I’ve learned one thing,” said Elizabeth. “I never knew there were more than a hundred varieties of white material. But—”
“There are thousands of them. I’ve discovered that this last few weeks. One thing is gained. You do increase your vocabulary. You must have different adjectives to express your admiration of each kind. What do you Middlers plan to do commencement week?”
Elizabeth looked down her nose. She could appear very innocent when she chose. “There was some mention made of a banquet,” she replied. “There was talk also of having a caterer from town.”
“Well, I guess not!” exclaimed Mary, arising. Her eyes were flashing with the spirit of school warfare. “I think you Middlers will think again about having anything so fine. Never in the history of Exeter have the Middlers given a banquet, and they shall not now. We shall keep them from it. We’ll treat you as the Seniors treated us last year. We, too, had a notion that we would give a banquet. We were so confident that we telephoned our order to the caterer; but we didn’t have the banquet.”
“Didn’t he receive the order?” The question was asked in such an innocent, seeking-for-information manner that Mary ought to have been suspicious, but she was not.
“Oh, yes, he received the order and the money to pay for it. We waited in the gym, all togged out in reception gowns, but the caterer came not. Suddenly it came to us that there must be some mistake. We set out to hunt for the banquet. We found its remains up in the laboratory where the Seniors had been feasting at our expense. No, indeed, Elizabeth,” Mary shook her head slowly, “no Middlers hold banquets at Exeter Hall. It isn’t countenanced.”
“We may try it, anyhow.”
“I hope you will. I should like to feast my friends at the Middlers’ expense.”
Elizabeth brought up the subject of the banquet again and again. Apparently inadvertently, she let drop many little points about the affair which were eagerly seized upon by her roommate. Mary was surprised at Elizabeth’s want of discretion. She seemed prone to let many a class secret escape.
It was evident the Middlers were laying plans for something. In groups of two and three, they surreptitiously visited each other. They gathered in hallways for whispered conferences. The Seniors were not blind. Each had her appointed work, and when the Middlers gathered together, there was a Senior concealed near by, with ears and eyes open. If the Middlers suspected that they were being shadowed, they made no signs.