p.

SUB ROSA."

For a moment Mamie looked doubtingly into Susan's face. She would not
have chosen her for one of the "lively girls;" but, now, as Susan knew
something was going on, perhaps it would be best to ask her, if--Mamie
had conscience enough to dally with this _if_ for a moment; perhaps
she might have longer, if there had been time, but as it was now
half-past seven, and the time was "eight sharp," and the girls were
to be chosen and notified, there was not a moment for parleying, even
with so respectable a thing as her conscience, so she showed Susan the
note.

"Oh, dear! that's too bad!" said Susan, as she finished reading it.
"Jerry is here, and he won't go away before eight. What can I do? it
would be just splendid!" And the tears actually came into her eyes.

"That's a pity!" and Mamie, more relieved than sorry, tried to look
regretful. "But don't you tell. Promise me, Susan Downer, let come
what may, you won't tell."

"I'm no tell-tale, Mamie Smythe, and I'll thank you not even to hint
at such a thing. You'll all get expelled, as like as not, and, come to
think of it, I'm real glad I'm not to go with you."

Before her sentence was finished, Mamie had flown out of the room, and
wild with delight over the "fun" before her, she rapidly made her
choice among the girls, not giving them time for consideration, but
hurrying them with all speed into their best clothes. They crept out,
one by one, through different ways. Myra Peters jumped from a window
when she heard Miss Palmer's door open, sure that otherwise she would
be found.

That her dress caught, that for a moment she hung between the moonlit
sky and a deep snow-bank, seemed to her of no consequence, so she
could escape. She left a bit of her best dress hanging on a hook, but
this she did not know until afterwards.

The girls met in the street, near the large front gate, where a tall
Norway spruce hid them entirely from the front windows of the academy.
Certainly they were not a merry group when they came together. All
they had to say to each other was in hushed and frightened tones the
peril of their escape.

When they reached the corner of Bond and Centre Streets there stood
the sleigh! How tempting it looked with its warm fur robes, its four
gayly caparisoned horses, its driver, slapping his hands together to
keep them warm, and the boys coming to meet them with such a merry
welcome!