s, "quite likely. Alas! there is another questionable
question-mark. I do wish she weren't so stingy with her red ink."

Robbie sighed again and looked at the clock. "It will be half past four
in two hours," she volunteered.

Berta pushed back her hair with an impatient gesture. "Robbie Belle, the
longer it rains, the more loquacious you become. Do go and write a note
to Lila, or darn stockings or something. I have a committee meeting at
three, and you bother me dreadfully, with your chatter. Do run along,
there's a dear."

Robbie rose and wandered away forlornly. Even though she did not feel
like studying, she half wished that she had not finished the preparation
of Monday's lessons. College on a rainy Saturday afternoon, when all your
friends are writing poems, is not a very cheerful place.

At half-past four Berta was in the midst of a fiery argument about the
program for the Junior Party to the seniors. The dispute concerned some
fine point of aesthetic taste in the choice of paper and position of
monogram. The stroke of the half hour reminded her of the engagement with
Bea, but she lightly pushed aside the thought as of no consequence in
comparison with the present emergency.

It was ten minutes to five when she seized an umbrella and scurried
across the campus to the gymnasium. There in the dusk of fading light
from the clouded sky outside she beheld the swimming-tank deserted, its
surface still glinting in soft ripples as if from recent plunging.

At sound of a rustle in one of the dressing-rooms, Berta called Bea's
name. It was Robbie's voice that answered her.

"Bea's gone out walking."

"Out walking?" echoed Berta scandalized and incredulous.

"Yes, she was here in the water at half-past four, just as she had said
she would be. She waited for you, and tried to swim at the end of a
curtain pole. I held it steady for her, but when she was the teacher, she
let me duck under. And we weren't sure about the stroke anyhow. And we
kept getting colder and colder."

"Oh!" the voice sounded as if suddenly enlightened. "At what time did you
go in?"

"It was after three, and she waited for you till twenty minutes to five.
Then she said she thought it would be interesting to go up to the orchard
and gather apple-blossoms with rain-drops fresh on the petals. She said
it would be poetic and erratic and a lot of fun. So she went. She said it
would be more like a real genius if she went alone, and so I didn't go
wi