mpatiently. "_Anybody_ could fool her. And Mae, right under her
very nose, commenced a flirtation with the _Soda-Water Clerk_."

"Oh!" said Patty hotly. "How perfectly horrid!"

"She didn't care anything about it, really. She was just trying to put
the principles of the S. A. S. into practice."

"She might at least have picked out somebody decent!"

"Well, he is quite decent. He's engaged to the girl at the underwear
counter in Bloodgood's, and he didn't want to be flirted with a bit. But
you know how persistent Mae Mertelle is, when she makes up her mind. The
poor young man just couldn't help himself. He was so embarrassed that he
didn't know what he was doing. He gave Hester Pringle half chocolate and
half sarsaparilla, and she says it was a _perfectly awful_ combination.
It made her feel so sick that she couldn't eat any dinner. And all this
time Waddy just sat and smiled into space and saw nothing; but all the
girls saw,--and _so did the drugstore man_!"

"Oh!" said Patty breathlessly.

"And this morning Miss Sallie went to the drugstore to get some potash
for Harriet Gladden's sore throat, and he told her all about it."

"What did Miss Sallie do?" Patty asked faintly.

"Do! She came back with blood in her eye, and told the Dowager, and they
called up Mae Mertelle and then--" Rosalie closed her eyes and
shuddered.

"Well," said Patty impatiently. "What happened?"

"The Dowager was _perfectly outraged_! She told Mae that she had
disgraced the school and that she would be expelled. And she wrote a
telegram to Mae's father to come and take her away. And she asked Mae if
she had anything to say for herself, and Mae said it wasn't her fault.
That you and I were to blame just as much as she, because we were all in
a society together, but that she couldn't tell about it because she'd
sworn."

"Beast!" said Patty.

"So then they sent for me and commenced asking questions about the S. A.
S. I tried not to tell, but you know the way the Dowager looks when
she's angry. Even a sphinx would break down and tell everything it
knew, and I never did pretend to be a sphinx."

"All right," said Patty, bracing herself for the shock. "What did they
say when they heard?"

"They didn't hear! I was just on the point of breaking my vows and
telling all, when who should pop in but Lordy. And she was _perfectly
splendid_! She said she knew all about the S. A. S. That it was a very
admirable institution, and that she was a mem