"Then she should have made rules to that effect. You know there's not a single one that would stand in the way of our doing this." "Yes, there is. It's an unwritten one, but it's the one law of the Hall that Madam expects every one to live up to." "May I ask what?" Maud's tone was freezingly polite. "The motto under the crest. It's on everything you know, the old earl's teacups, the stationery, and everything--'Keep tryst.'" "Fiddlesticks for the old earl's teacups!" said Maud, shrugging her shoulders. "It's unreasonable to expect us to keep tryst with Miss Chilton now." "Not that," said Gay, ready to cry. "We're to keep tryst with what she expects of us. She expects us to do the right thing under all circumstances, and you know the right thing now is to go home. We were recognized at the restaurant as Warwick Hall girls, and we might be again at the matinee. What would people think of the school if they saw three of the girls there with a strange young man without a chaperon?" "You're the chaperon. If you'd do to take us shopping, you'd do for that." "Oh, Maud, don't be unreasonable," urged Gay. "It's entirely different. Don't be offended, please, but we can't go. It's simply out of the question." "Indeed it isn't," answered Maud, turning again to the telephone. "Go home if you want to, but Lloyd and I will do as we please. I'll accept for us." This time Lloyd stopped her. "Wait! Let's telephone out to the Hall and ask Madam." Maud shrugged her shoulders. "You know very well she'd say no if you asked her beforehand." Then the two heard one side of her conversation over the telephone. "Hello, Charlie! Sorry to keep you waiting so long." "The girls are afraid to go." "What's that?" "I don't suppose so." "I'm perfectly willing. I'll ask them." Then turning again, with the receiver in her hand: "He says that the matinee will probably be over before the second train out to the Hall, and, if it isn't, we can leave a little earlier and be at the station before Miss Chilton gets there, and she need never know but what we've just been streetcar riding, as we first planned." "Then that settles it!" exclaimed Lloyd. "If he said that, I wouldn't go with him for anything in the world." "Why?" demanded Maud. Her eyes flashed angrily. "Because--because," stammered Lloyd. "Well, it'll make you mad, but I can't help it. Papa Jack said one time that an honourable man would never ask me to do anything clandestine. And it would be sneaking to do as he proposes." Maud was white with rage, and the hand that held the receiver trembled. "Have the goodness to keep your insulting remarks to yourself in the future, Miss Sherman." "Please don't go," begged Gay. "I feel so responsible for getting you home safely, and it _would_ be sneaking, you know, to pretend we'd been simply trolley-riding when we'd been off with him."