“I can’t imagine you in love, you ridiculous girl,” Vera’s infectious giggle went the round of the table.
“Ah, if I were; and what a fine frenzy I should be in. Like this,” Leila rolled her eyes, put on a lovelorn expression and struck her hand to her forehead with tragic force. She immediately rubbed her hand. “Arrah, but I have a hard forehead,” she remarked ruefully.
The return of the waitress with the consomme put a momentary check on the animated rolling of what Vera had whimsically called the “gabble ball.” The instant the hungry girls began their soup they resumed conversation. While Leila and Vera had many news items germane to the campus to relate, none of them were of moment. Robin had much concerning herself and Phylis Moore, her cousin, now a senior, to tell. Marjorie’s news centered on Jerry’s, Lucy’s, Muriel’s and her own doings during vacation. Of Ronny she had almost no news to relate. She had received but one letter from her since Ronny had sped West to her beautiful ranch home in California. The news of Elaine Hunter’s engagement was, thus far, the banner surprise.
“Oh, girls, have you seen Miss Susanna since you came?” was Marjorie’s concerned question, as the four lingered over the dessert of maple mousse and petit fours. “I’ve been trying to ask you that question from the first, and haven’t.”
“Now what makes you think we have seen her?” countered Leila with an elaborately innocent air.
“That means you have,” Marjorie translated, “and you,” she pointed an accusing finger at Leila, “and you,” the finger moved on to Vera, “are trying to keep something from me. I know you’re not guilty, Robin. You look innocent. But this pair look suspicious; oh, very suspicious.”
“Now, Beauty, on your honor, do I look as though there was anything I could refuse to tell you, provided I knew it?” ingratiated Leila, her bright blue eyes a-twinkle. She appeared to be wrestling with a secret mirth which threatened to overrun her mischievous face. She now made mysterious signs to Vera whose smiles were also in evidence.
“You look too tantalizing for words. So does Vera. Oh, I know you both!”
“So you take us for a precious pair of rogues; eh, Beauty!” Leila made a smiling failure of trying to appear reproachful. “Never mind. Midget and Leila forgive you. Bring forth the mystic writing, Midget. May Beauty’s bad opinion of us fly away on swift wings!”