Part 12 (2/2)
LA SOIReE MUSICALE.
”Girls! what do you think's up?” exclaimed Sarah Brown, as she bounced into the library one afternoon. ”Miss Stiefbach and Mr. Stein have just been having a long confab in the 'secret-chamber,' and they came out just as I pa.s.sed the door, and I heard Miss 'Stiffy' say, 'Yes, I knew you would prefer Friday, so I ventured to invite them without seeing you again; as yet the young ladies know nothing about it!' Now _I_ should like to knew what in the world _it_ is.”
”Well, so should I!” exclaimed Julia Thayer. ”What can she mean; 'invited them,' and 'the young ladies know nothing about it.' She must be going to give a party.”
”Yes, that's it, you may be sure,” said Marion; ”she's going to give a party, and she and Mr. Stein are going to lead the German. Won't they look well dancing the 'deux-temps' together?”
”O Marion, how perfectly ridiculous!” laughed Florence. ”You know she can't be going to have a party; but what can it mean?”
”Are you sure you heard right, Sallie?” asked Grace Minton. ”Why didn't you break your shoe-string and stop to tie it up; or do something or other to keep you there long enough to get something a little more satisfactory?”
”Why, I couldn't hang round the hall listening to what they said, could I? But I know there is to be something going on here Friday; see if there isn't.”
”Yes, and Miss Stiefbach isn't going to say anything about it to us until the last moment, because she thinks our heads will be full of it,”
e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Marion. ”I've a great mind to ask her myself.”
”If I was in the habit of betting, I would bet you anything that I know all about it,” remarked Georgie Graham, who had kept silent while the other girls were making their comments.
”Oh, what is it?” asked Marion; ”my principles and my purse too will stand a pound of candy.”
”And I another,” cried Sarah.
”Not so fast,” replied Georgie. ”I said _if_ I was in the habit of betting, but I never bet; it is very unladylike.”
”Granted!” cried Marion; ”but please reserve your lecture for another time, and out with your secret.”
”I really don't know as I _ought_ to tell,” said Georgie, as she counted the st.i.tches on her canvas in a provokingly cool way. ”I knew it by accident, and that is the reason I haven't spoken of it before.”
”Oh, if you got possession of it in the same way you have of several other secrets here, I don't blame you for not wanting to tell of it,”
retorted Sarah.
”I don't know what you mean to insinuate, Sarah; but I heard of this entirely by accident two weeks ago to-morrow,” replied Georgie in the same unmoved tone. ”I was in the anteroom looking over an exercise which monsieur wanted me to correct, when I heard Mr. Stein and Miss Stiefbach talking together in very low tones in the school-room. Of course it did not occur to me that there could be anything private in what they were saying, or I should have let them know I was there”--(”Of course,”
laconically remarked Marion)--”but when they had got through their conversation Miss Stiefbach said, 'We will say nothing about it to any one, as I wish it should remain a secret for the present;'--so I said nothing.”
”Well, don't you _intend_ to say anything?” cried Sarah Brown; ”now that we know there is something going on, don't you intend to tell us what it is?”
”I really don't think it would be very honorable in me,” rejoined Georgie, thoroughly enjoying her important position.
”Don't trouble her, Sarah; we all know what her conscientious scruples are. It would be a pity to have them disturbed,” remarked Marion in a cutting, sarcastic tone. ”I can tell you what it all means in five seconds.”
”What is it?--tell us, do!” cried all, with the exception of Georgie.
”Miss Stiefbach intends to have some sort of a musical spread next Friday, and we girls have got to play.”
”How did you know it?” exclaimed Georgie, thoroughly off her guard.
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