Dorothy?"

"Not at all. Lil Pendleton--"

"Wait a minute," proposed Laura Belding. "Let us hear her crime before we
sentence her to death."

"That's right," agreed Bobby. "Oh, she surely has put her foot in it! She
told Mr. Mann that Hessie is just the girl to act 'the dark lady' in our
play. What do you know about that?"

"Ow! Ow! That hurts!" squealed Dora.

"She never _did_?" gasped her twin.

"Hope to die!" exclaimed Bobby recklessly. "That is exactly the game she is
trying to work."

"Hester Grimes! Of all persons!" groaned Nellie.

"Lil hasn't said a word about it to me," Jess Morse declared.

"No, she is going to get Mr. Mann himself to propose Hester--"

"But Hessie isn't a member of the club!" cried Nellie.

"We have set a precedent there," said Laura thoughtfully. "We took Janet
Steele into the ice carnival, and she was not a member of the school."

"That was an entirely different thing!" snapped Jess.