"I know I have, and I didn"t mean to be cross, Clovy. The truth is I am all put out. These girls with incessant talk about the students make me absolutely sick. It is so unladylike, and so bad, especially for the little ones. Fancy that mite of a Carrie Steele informing me that she is "in love" with Harry Crosby. In love! A baby like that!
She has no business to know that there is such a thing."
"Yes," said Clover laughing: "she wrote his name on a wintergreen lozenge, and bored a hole and hung it round her neck on a blue ribbon.
But it melted and stuck to her frock, and she had to take it off."
"Whereupon she ate it," added Rose, who came in at that moment.
The girls shouted, but Katy soon grew grave. "One can"t help laughing," she said, "but isn"t it a shame to have such things going on? Just fancy our Elsie behaving so, Clover! Why, papa would have a fit. I declare, I"ve a great mind to get up a society to put down flirting."
"Do!" said Rose. "What fun it would be! Call it "The Society for the Suppression of Young Men." I"ll join."
"You, indeed!" replied Katy, shaking her head. "Didn"t I see Berry Searles throw a bunch of syringa into your window only this morning?"
"Dear me! did he? I shall have to speak to Mary again. It"s quite shocking to have her go on so. But really and truly do let us have a Society. It would be so jolly. We could meet on Sat.u.r.day afternoons, and write pieces and have signals and a secret, as Sylvia"s Society did when she was at school. Get one up, Katy,-- that"s a dear."
"But," said Katy, taken aback by having her random idea so suddenly adopted, "if I did get one up, it would be in real earnest, and it would be a society against flirting. And you know you can"t help it, Rosy."
"Yes, I can. You are doing me great injustice. I don"t behave like those girls in Attic Row. I never did. I just bow to Berry and the rest whom I really know,--never to anybody else. And you must see, Katherine darling, that it would be the height of ingrat.i.tude if I didn"t bow to the boys who made mud pies for me when I was little, and lent me their marbles, and did all sorts of kind things. Now wouldn"t it?"--coaxingly.
"Per--haps," admitted Katy, with a smile. "But you"re such a witch!"
"I"m not,--indeed I"m not. I"ll be a pillar of society if only you"ll provide a Society for me to be a pillar of. Now, Katy, do--ah, do, do!"
When Rose was in a coaxing mood, few people could resist her. Katy yielded, and between jest and earnest the matter was settled. Katy was to head the plan and invite the members.
"Only a few at first," suggested Rose. "When it is proved to be a success, and everybody wants to join, we can let in two or three more as a great favor. What shall the name be? We"ll keep it a secret, whatever it is. There"s no fun in a society without a secret."
What should the name be? Rose invented half a dozen, each more absurd than the last. "The Anti-Jane Society" would sound well, she insisted.
Or, no!--the "Put-him-down-Club" was better yet! Finally they settled upon "The Society for the Suppression of Unladylike Conduct."
"Only we"ll never use the whole name," said Rose: "We"ll say, "The S. S .U. C." That sounds brisk and snappy, and will drive the whole school wild with curiosity. What larks! How I long to begin!"
The next Sat.u.r.day was fixed upon for the first meeting. During the week Katy proposed the plan to the elect few, all of whom accepted enthusiastically. Lilly Page was the only person who declined. She said it would be stupid; that for her part she didn"t set up to be "proper" or better than she was, and that in any case she shouldn"t wish to be mixed up in a Society of which "Miss Agnew" was a member.
The girls did not break their hearts over this refusal. They had felt obliged to ask her for relationship"s sake, but everybody was a little relieved that she did not wish to join.
No. 6 looked very full indeed that Sat.u.r.day afternoon when the S. S.
U. C. came together for the first time. Ten members were present.
Mary Silver and Louisa were two; and Rose"s crony, Esther Dearborn, another. The remaining four were Sally Alsop and Amy Erskine; Alice Gibbons, one of the new scholars, whom they all liked, but did not know very well; and Ellen Gray, a pale, quiet girl, with droll blue eyes, a comical twist to her mouth, and a trick of saying funny things in such a demure way that half the people who listened never found out that they were funny. All Rose"s chairs had been borrowed for the occasion. Three girls sat on the bed, and three on the floor.
With a little squeezing, there was plenty of room for everybody.
Katy was chosen President, and requested to take the rocking-chair as a sign of office. This she did with much dignity, and proceeded to read the Const.i.tution and By-Laws of the Society, which had been drawn up by Rose Red, and copied on an immense sheet of blue paper.
They ran thus:--
CONSt.i.tUTION FOR THE SOCIETY FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF UNLADYLIKE CONDUCT, KNOWN TO THE UNINITIATED AS THE S. S. U. C.
ARTICLE I.
The object of this Society is twofold: it combines having a good time with the Pursuit of VIRTUE.
ARTICLE II.
The good time is to take place once a week in No. 6 Quaker Row, between the hours of four and six P. M.
ARTICLE III.
The nature of the good time is to be decided upon by a Committee to be appointed each Sat.u.r.day by the members of the Society.
ARTICLE IV.
VIRTUE is to be pursued at all times and in all seasons, by the members of the Society setting their faces against the practice of bowing and speaking to young gentlemen who are not acquaintances; waving of pocket handkerchiefs, signals from windows, and any species of conduct which would be thought unladylike by nice people anywhere, and especially by the mammas of the Society.
ARTICLE V.
The members of the Society pledge themselves to use their influence against these practices, both by precept and example.
In witness whereof we sign.
Katherine Carr, President.
Rosamond Redding, Secretary.
Clover E. Carr.
Mary L. Silver.
Esther Dearborn.
Sally P. Alsop.
Amy W. Erskine.
Alice Gibbons.
Ellen Whitworth Gray.
Next followed the By-Laws. Katy had not been able to see the necessity of having any By-Laws, but Rose had insisted. She had never heard of a Society without them, she said, and she didn"t think it would be "legal" to leave them out. It had cost her some trouble to invent them, but at last they stood thus:--
BY-LAW NO. 1.
The members of the S. S. U. C. will observe the following signals:--
1st. The Grip.--This is given by inserting the first and middle finger of the right hand between the thumb and fourth finger of the respondent"s left, and describing a rotatory motion in the air with the little finger. N. B. Much practice is necessary to enable members to exchange this signal in such a manner as not to attract attention.
2nd. The Signal of Danger.--This signal is for use when Miss Jane, or any other foe-woman, heaves into sight. It consists in rubbing the nose violently, and at the same time giving three stamps on the floor with the left foot. It must be done with an air of unconsciousness.
3rd. The Signal for Consultation.--This signal is for use when immediate communication is requisite between members of the Society. It consists of a pinch on the back of the right hand, accompanied by the word "Holofernes" p.r.o.nounced in a low voice.