"But if George Norman isn't able to speak?" queried Alicia, fearlessly coming to the point.
"Then you'll have to make the speech!" said Rockwell bluntly to Merriam.
"But how can I?"
"You were a debater in college."
"Yes, but the speech itself----"
"Oh, Aunt Mary will fix you up with a speech."
Merriam turned to that silent mistress of the situation, sitting calmly in the senatorial armchair.
"George is so very busy that I often write his speeches for him," she said, as if it were the most natural arrangement in the world. "I have several sketched out now. We can make a choice among them. I will write it out in full and you can learn it, or I will turn over the outline to you and you can work it up in your own words--if you have to make it."
"You probably won't," Rockwell hastened to say. "Norman is really much better. After a comfortable night here at the hotel he will be all right. If he's a little hoarse, we can't help it. But you must stay over, you see," he added determinedly,--"to make sure. That speech must be made."
"But my school!" cried Merriam.