"I can manage it," said Florence, "for my cousin, Amy Hall, was married a fortnight ago, and there is a huge wedge of her wedding-cake in the pantry. I shall get a great slice from it and bring it with me. Oh, it will be fun!"
"And we can all sleep on it," cried Susan, almost shrieking with delight, "and dream. Oh, to think of dreaming of our future husbands! What a delicious joke!"
Ethel and Emma were to bring fruit from their father's shop, and anything else they could manage to convey.
The girls of the town were very much delighted, but very much afraid of their escapade being discovered, and very proud of their acquaintance with Susan.
But now Susan, as she sat alone in her boudoir, had sorrowfully to reflect that this glorious feast, this delightful adventure must be given up.
"It can't be done," she said to herself. "Miss Peacock is on the watch. When Lavinia opens her sleepy eyes, they do open with a vengeance; and then Jessie ceases to be a lamb, and becomes a very lion of vigilance and terror. Then as to Star, now that she has given up the Penwernians, she will certainly split on us. It can't be done. I must see Maud; she must help me. Maud and I must both manage in such a way that no one shall find out. Florence, Ethel, and Emma must be spoken to; they must be told that the delightful feast is to be postponed."
Susan Marsh was the sort of girl who never took long in making up her mind. This happened to be Saturday morning; the next day was Sunday. The girls had a little more freedom on Sundays than on other days, and they regularly walked, two and two together, to the parish church at Tregellick. Susan wondered if by any possibility she could slip away from her fellows and convey a note to Florence Dixie with strict injunctions to give up all idea of visiting Penwerne Manor on the following Wednesday evening, and further telling her to put off Ethel and Emma Manners.
Susan felt very much frightened, and not at all sure that she could convey this note, but still she resolved to have a good try.
As she sat and thought and made up her mind, Star Lestrange entered the boudoir. Susan looked up sullenly when she observed Star's bright face.
"Well, what is it?" she said. "What do you want?"