Part 10 (1/2)
”Oh, Aggie, how did you come out?” he asked soberly. ”Was Mr. Marks just as hard on you as he could be?”
”I think so,” Agnes replied gravely. ”We don't just know yet what he means to do. Only in part. But that part is just _awful_!”
”Was the row about Buckham's berries?”
”Yes.”
”I thought so. What's he going to do to you? Make you forfeit all the games?”
”No. Maybe something worse than that.”
”Worse? What is it?” asked Neale, in wonder.
”He says we none of us can act in that play he told about this morning.”
”Huh!” muttered the boy, eyeing Agnes' flushed face and tearful eyes in surprise. ”Do you care?”
”Oh, Neale! I _know_ I can act. I love it. I've always been crazy for it. And now, when there's maybe a chance, I am not--going--to--be--let!”
”Goodness! do you really feel so bad about it, Aggie?”
”I--I---- Why, my heart will be just _broken_ if I can't act in _The Carnation Countess_,” sobbed the Corner House girl.
”Oh, cricky! Don't turn on the sprinkler again, Aggie,” begged Neale, in a panic.
”I--I just can't help it! To think of there being a play acted in this town, and I might be in it!” wailed Agnes. ”And now it's just out of my reach! It's too mean for anything, that's what it is!”
She threatened to burst into another flood, and Neale tried to head the tears off by saying:
”Don't cry again, Aggie. Oh, don't! If you won't cry I'll try to find some way of getting you out of the sc.r.a.pe.”
”You--you can't, Neale O'Neil!”
”We--ell, I can try.”
”And I wouldn't want to get out of it myself unless the other girls escaped punishment, too.”
”You're a good little sport, Aggie. I always said so,” Neale declared, admiringly. ”Say, that reminds me!” he added, suddenly. ”Were all the girls up before Mr. Marks?”
”All who went over to Fleeting that day, do you mean?”
”Yes. All that were in that car that broke down.”
”Why--yes--I think so.”
”Huh!” grunted Neale, thoughtfully.
”All but one anyway.”
”Hullo! Who was that?”