"I can," said Bella. "Do you know that we are to have a new French teacher after holidays?"
"I supposed so, because I knew that Mademoiselle was not coming back," replied Delia quietly. "Have you heard any thing decided, Bella?"
"Miss Gilbert told me that Mrs. Pomeroy had determined to employ the same person that they have at the Academy—a Mr. Hugo, who is very highly recommended."
"Then we shall have no resident French teacher, and of course no French table," said Almira Crosby, who was notoriously lazy about her French, as indeed she was about most things. "What a blessing that will be."
"Well I like the French table well enough," said Bella, laying down a finished glove and taking up another, "and so would you, if you would take any pains to learn. I am sorry that Mademoiselle is going away. I like her better than any teacher in the house, except Mr. Fletcher."
"So don't I!" said Almira. "She is so cross and over particular."
"Oh, you think any teacher over particular, who wont let you keep your dirty shoes and clean collars in the same drawer, and who wont let you talk about pang and dang-dongs," replied Bella. "You did not like it, because she sent you back from walking, for having a great piece of molasses candy sticking to your fur cape, like a new kind of bullion trimming."
"Hush girls, stop quarrelling," said Delia impatiently, as Almira was about to reply. "Not another word Almira, or I will mark you, for I am monitress to-day, and I mean to make the most of my authority while it lasts. I wonder if this can be the same Mr. Hugo who used to teach at the Gymnasium, when I was there. If he is, you will have to mind your p's and q's, I can tell you, for he is as much more particular than Mademoiselle, as Mademoiselle is more particular than Almira!"
"Oh Delia! The force of exaggeration could no farther go," exclaimed Janet Graves laughing.
Emily meanwhile looked at her room-mate with a feeling of perfect amazement. "Well," was her thought, "I should like to know what she is made of; that is all. Here she has been scheming and planning for ten days past to get this man into the house, and yet she speaks of him as coolly as though he were a perfect stranger."