g his fingers to his mouth as though to give one of the
ear-splitting whistles which seem to carry for miles.

"If you dare, you scape-grace, right here in this dining-room!" she
warned.

"Oh, do it!" cried Polly. "I want to learn how. Show me."

"All right; stick out your tongue," directed Durand and Polly promptly
fell into the trap, though unluckily she happened to be looking straight
past Durand at the moment, and what proved more embarrassing, right at a
table occupied by Foxy Grandpa, Helen and Lily Pearl, whom Mrs. Harold
had not yet met, so, of course, did not recognize. (Helen and Lily did
not mean to lose sight of Peggy and Polly if they could help it.)

There are some situations where explanations only make matters worse.
This was one of them. Polly was in everlasting disgrace and everyone at
the table in shouts of laughter, as well as those at other tables near
at hand, whose occupants could not have helped hearing and seeing if
they would.

But at that moment Rosalie diverted attention from Polly by trying to
clap her hands regardless of the piece of luncheon roll she held, thus
promptly launching it over her shoulder, where it went merrily bounding
across the polished floor to be gravely rescued by the irreproachable
John. But Rosalie was in the realms of the gods and far above such
mundane matters as a luncheon roll's eccentricities.

Mrs. Harold was no whit behind her girls in their fun, and was so well
known to every guest in the hotel that her table was invariably looked
upon as a source of amusement for most of the others, and the fun which
flowed like an electric current came very near making them forget the
good things before them, and the big dining-room full of people found
themselves sympathetically affected, each gay bit of laughter, each
enthusiastic comment finding an answering smile at some table.

As nearly every member of the first class had gone on Christmas leave,
the few who happened to be in Annapolis having remained as the guests of
friends, there was a very perceptible thinning out of ranks over in
Bancroft that afternoon. Nevertheless, Mrs. Harold had announced an
informal tea from four to six and "general liberty" enabled all who
chose to do so to attend it. And many chose! But in the interval
between luncheon and four o 'clock Mrs. Harold "barred out the masculine
population" and carried her girls upstairs to change their gowns for her
tea. It was during the "prinking proces