they had not been introduced to
her and that she had not the vaguest idea of their names. Which of her
teachers or pupils had been so very remiss?

CHAPTER XV

THE TRUMP CARD

It so happened that the presence of the two strange girls had aroused the
curiosity of someone else, and that this somebody being of a suspicious
nature at all times required but little to set her fancies a-galloping.
She had watched the girls all through the game, and at its end sped away
to the dressing room and changed her clothes with remarkable expedition.
Then, instead of joining her companions in Miss Woodhull's reception
room, where tea was to be served to pupils and guests, she hurried into
her outdoor garments, and slipped out of a side door, made her way around
the house to a clump of fir trees in which she could watch undetected all
who left the main entrance of Leslie Manor.

She did not have to wait long. The two girls were among the first to
leave, but instead of following the broad main walk as the other guests
did, they turned into a side path as though wishing to stroll about the
grounds. The moment they were out of sight the suspicious one was
hot-foot upon their trail, and Miss Eleanor Allen was compelled to do
some lively stepping out in order to overtake her quarry. Only they were
certainly most athletic young women if one might judge from the manner in
which they strode forward.

Naturally at that season of the year the outskirts of the grounds were
entirely deserted. The elegantly dressed young ladies hurried toward a
dense clump of cedars which grew near the prickly holly hedge, and, to
Eleanor's amazement, the wearer of the big chiffon veil began to tug and
haul at it until it came loose, while the taller girl began to divest
herself of her handsome fur collar and coat. Eleanor gasped, and the next
moment nearly passed away, for now Miss "Chiffon-Veil's" skirts fell from
her, and Miss "Tall-Blonde" began to wriggle out of _her_ garments as a
boy might wriggle out of his coat and vest.... It was all Eleanor could
do to repress a cry of horror. Then off fell the big hat, the hair coming
with it, and before her stood a tall, fair boy in his trousers and shirt.

"Gee Whiz! Ath, pitch me my coat quick! Those girl's togs nearly
smothered me and now I'm freezing," he cried.

The garments desired were picked out of a bundle of things hidden in the
cedars,