"I think I"ll go anyway. Oh, there"s a knock!"
Annabel opened the door a crack.
"May I come in, Annabel?"
It was Mrs. White"s voice, and Annabel was obliged to open the door.
Mrs. White looked at Blue Bonnet.
"I think I"ll have to escort Miss Ashe to her room and show her the rules," she said, smiling.
"I"m ready. I was just going."
"Very well. We"ll "kill two birds with one stone." I was going to your room to talk over your music."
Arm in arm they went down the corridor.
Mrs. White turned Blue Bonnet round after they had entered the room, and drew her attention to a white placard on the wall near the door.
"There," she said, "you will find all the rules."
She ran her finger along the printed column until she came to the one she wanted. Then she read aloud:
""Visiting among students is forbidden except between the hours of four and five in the afternoon, and two and six on Sat.u.r.days."
"Didn"t you see these rules, Miss Ashe?"
"Oh, yes, I saw them," Blue Bonnet answered with unconcern that amazed Mrs. White. "I didn"t read them. I hate rules!"
"But I am afraid you will have to read these--and obey them!"
"I suppose so."
Blue Bonnet sighed. "You see," she explained, "I"ve been brought up rather differently from most girls--that is, up to a year and a half ago. I lived on a big ranch in Texas with my uncle. Everything there was as free as the air and water. We didn"t have any restrictions. Boston seems to be made up of "em."
"We do have a good many conventions, that"s true--especially here. It would be chaos without them. You can see that, can"t you?"
"Oh, yes."
"And you will try to keep the rules?"
"Of course I"ll try. I shouldn"t like to displease _you_."
The compliment was so navely given, and so evidently sincere, that Mrs.
White looked pleased.
"I appreciate that very much," she said, "but you must keep on equally good terms with your _own_ conscience--have its approval, always."
The building in which Miss North conducted her school for girls had originally been a private mansion. It was interesting and attractive, with many odd nooks and mysterious pa.s.sages that lent charm and romance to its young occupants. In recent years property adjoining had been added for recitation and school purposes; two houses welded into one.
The entire bas.e.m.e.nt of the annex had been remodeled into a well-equipped gymnasium, and at the rear of the lot a swimming pool had been erected.
It was the custom of the girls to repair to the gymnasium after dinner for a half hour"s frolic. Usually they danced.
Blue Bonnet and Carita followed the other girls down-stairs and through the narrow pa.s.sage that connected the two buildings, a pa.s.sage known as the subway--or sub.
"Mercy, isn"t this spooky?" Carita said, taking a better hold on Blue Bonnet"s arm.
"Oh, this isn"t anything? Wait a minute."
Mary Boyd drew the girls over to a door at one side of the gymnasium and flung it wide.
"That"s a part of the furnace room," she said. "You can go through here and follow another little dark hall--oh, much worse than this--and it takes you to the kitchen and pantries. We went down one night last year--"
"One night?"
Carita shuddered.
"Yes, it was loads of fun. There were five or six of us. We ate enough apple sauce and fresh bread to kill us."
At the piano in the gymnasium a girl was playing a two-step.
"Let"s sit here and talk," Blue Bonnet said to Carita, drawing her to a secluded corner. "I feel as if I had hardly seen you."
Sue Hemphill pa.s.sed, and, seeing Blue Bonnet, dropped into a seat beside her.
"Well," she said, "how do you girls like it by this time?"
"The school, you mean?" Blue Bonnet asked.
"Yes."
"It"s been rather strenuous to-day. I"m beginning to look forward to bedtime. I"m tired."
"It is tiresome--getting adjusted."
"What do we do after this half hour? It"s a regular merry-go-round, isn"t it? A continuous performance."
Sue laughed.
"We study the next hour. Sometimes--twice a week--we have a short lecture on general culture. You"ll be taught how to enter a room properly, and how to leave it--"
"I know that already."
"Of course, but it has to be impressed."
"Then what?"