Part 28 (1/2)

Mrs. Cupp proved that she possessed a hearty appet.i.te, and that the fright she had suffered had not impaired it. She accepted a second helping of salad and two plates of ice-cream followed, with several fancy cakes.

”I must say,” she observed, in a more cordial mood than any of the girls had ever seen her display before. ”I must say that whoever chose these refreshments showed more regard for your digestions than usually is the case in such midnight feasts. And as I remember my own schooldays, we never had anything on such occasions that was really fit for a girl to put in her stomach.”

”Oh, Mrs. Cupp!” exclaimed Laura, ”did you really have parties like this when you were a girl at boarding school?”

”I was just saying, Laura, that they were _not_ like this,” returned the matron. ”But schoolgirls are all alike, if banquets are not.”

The girls giggled at that retort. It did seem funny to hear Mrs. Cupp joke, in even the grimmest manner.

But Mrs. Cupp was rapidly recovering from her softer mood. Laura said afterward that if it took a ghost-fright to make Mrs. Cupp ”livable,” if the matron were threatened with the guillotine, for instance, she might really be good company while the effect of the announcement of the coming tragedy lasted.

”I want to know who the guilty party is,” said the Lakeview Hall matron.

”Who got up this party, and who paid for it?”

”I'm the guilty one,” said Nan, promptly. ”I must be held solely responsible.”

”Oh, no, she is not alone responsible. I helped,” cried Bess, ”and if Nan is to be punished, I ought to be, too.”

”And so did I,” Amelia put in. ”'Twon't be fair for only one to be punished.”

”And you know,” said the red-haired girl, with saucy significance, ”we _all_ helped eat Nan's lovely supper.”

”Ahem! I see the point, Laura,” Mrs. Cupp observed. ”But it does not change the facts. A rule of the Hall has been broken--flagrantly broken.

That you girls fled away to this spot for your reprehensible act adds to the offence. We are responsible to your parents and guardians for your health and safety. The result of an escapade like this n.o.body can foretell. Something might have happened in this old boathouse to harm you girls and bring ill-repute to the Hall.”

The party of school-law breakers looked rather solemn. Mrs. Cupp folded the napkin she had used and brushed the crumbs from her black broadcloth skirt.

”Nothing excuses an infraction of the rules. But I am inclined to show leniency to everybody but the prime mover in this affair. And that is----”

”Me!” gasped Bess Harley. ”Nan would never have thought of having a supper but for me.”

”But I chose this place for it, and it was my money paid for it,” cried Nan.

”How much did it cost?” asked Mrs. Cupp, briskly.

”More than twenty-five dollars,” confessed Nan, blus.h.i.+ng.

”Mercy on us! What extravagance!” cried the matron. ”You shall be punished for that, if for nothing else, Nancy Sherwood,” and she got up quickly. ”Now, girls, is there anything left?”

”Some cream and cake, Mrs. Cupp,” Amelia promptly announced.

”Take it up to the Hall for Susan and the other maids,” ordered the matron. ”Miss Sherwood, Miss Harley, Miss Polk and Miss Boggs may come down here some time to-morrow and clean up. I will speak to Dr. Prescott about the punishment to be meted out to the chief offender. She will be vexed about it, I have no doubt.”

Laura sidled up to her as the matron prepared to set forth with the truants for the Hall, and whispered:

”But wasn't that mayonnaise lovely, Mrs. Cupp?”

”You cannot cajole me, Miss Polk,” the matron said.

This speech gave the fun-makers a feeling of dejection. Most of them did not know how clear Dr. Prescott's sense of justice was. It looked as though Nan Sherwood was in for a lot of trouble. And she had given them such a delightful supper!