Such funny little shrieks as the Fräulein uttered, no one could understand, not even Marion, who was looking in her face. There were anger and fun and amazement, chasing each other in quick succession, her hands beating time to each feeling, as an instrument utters its music to the touch.
To the amazement of all, it ended in the Fräulein shrieking out,— 188
“Lilly White! You be a—what you call um der thor, narr, dummkopf, fool, idiotte; you know German, nicht! nicht, you idiotte!”
In these hard words the little German teacher’s anger wholly vanished; pulling down the placard, she tore it in bits, gathered them up in her small white apron, made a sweeping courtesy, and trotted away.
As soon as she was fairly out of hearing, the girls began to busy themselves about their Christmas work. Lilly White’s room was full of things to be made into pretty gifts for the tree, of which the Fräulein’s share was by far the largest.
There is a wonderful degree of thoughtfulness among a company of girls. Not one there but knew of Marion’s circumstances, and how impossible it would be for her, out of her slender purse, to meet the demands of the occasion. If Gladys Philbrick had generously helped her to prepare the pretty gifts which were on their way to her far-away home, so these girls as generously planned that in the Fräulein’s festival she should not find herself in the embarrassing position of being the one who should receive, without making a return.
It was beautiful to see the delicacy with which they managed the whole, so that Marion hardly felt how much they gave, and how pleasantly she received.
On Christmas morning the whole house was early astir. All up and down the corridors, long before the dim light penetrated into them, white-robed figures flitted noiselessly from door to door. “Merry 189 Christmas! Merry Christmas!” was whispered inside, until a ghost-like procession of some twenty girls headed for the Fräulein’s room.
This was at the end of the second corridor, and as they approached it not a sound was to be heard from within but the satisfactory one of long and loud snores.
It had been agreed on the previous night that not a door should be locked on the inside, and Helen Stratton, “the cute girl,” who could do anything she tried to do, was chosen to open this door. This she did so noiselessly, that the whole twenty girls entered the room and surrounded the Fräulein’s bed without so much as interrupting a single snore. Then all at once a merry chorus broke out with,—