che. Of course Berta and I
and the others had a right to cut late if we wanted to do so, but we
didn't mean to keep anybody from working.

Martha returned from breakfast just as I was catching together a tiny
hole in my stocking above the shoe. It wasn't really my stocking, for I
had lost mine by sending them unmarked to the laundry, and so I had
borrowed these from Martha. They were her finest best ones, I believe,
and very nice, though her clothes generally seemed shabby. This morning
she told us to hurry down please, because the maid was feeling miserable.
We did hurry and tried not to complain of the cold cocoa or the tough
steak, though it is certainly the maid's duty to get fresh hot things no
matter how late the girls are. She couldn't find our favorite crescent
rolls in the pantry or down-stairs in the bakery or anywhere. Before we
were through eating, the other maids had cleared away their breakfast
dishes and had their tables all set for luncheon. Our maid was naturally
slow, I suspect.

After breakfast we had barely time to smooth the counterpanes over sheets
and blankets that lay in wrinkles. They looked pretty well on top, but
honestly I was relieved to have Martha and her big eyes out of the way.
Though we snatched our books and ran through the corridors we were two
minutes tardy in reaching the Latin room. The instructor was so irritable
that she laid down her book and the whole class waited while Lila and I
tiptoed to our seats in the middle of the last row.

With all the campaign excitement of course we had let our work get
crowded out, and the other girls appeared to be in the same fix. When the
most dazzling star in the class flunked on a grammatical reference, the
instructor bit her lip and sent the question flying up one row and down
another as fast as the students could shake their heads. As it came
leaping nearer and nearer to us, Lila remembered a college story about a
girl sliding from her place and kneeling behind the seat in front till
the question had passed on over the vacant spot. Lila was so agitated
that she forgot how conspicuous we had been in entering late. She slipped
out of her seat and hid like the girl in the story. Then fell an awful
stillness. The question stopped right there, hovering over the empty
place. Everybody waited. The instructor set her mouth in grimmer lines,
and waited, her eyes glued to the spot from where Lila had vanished.
Those in front turned around to look. L