Flip went tearing along the corridor and up the stairs. She slowed
down when she came to the lounge because Fräulein Hauser was on duty,
and walked as quickly as possible to the Common Room. Luckily Jackie
and Erna were off in a corner together, reading a letter from Jackie's
mother.
"Get permission from Hauser to go to the libe and meet me in the room,"
she whispered. Then she hurried away and ran up the stairs, pulling off
ski jacket and sweater on the way. Jackie and Erna came in as she was
throwing on her uniform.
"What's up?"
"Come on down to the ski room with me," Flip panted.
"Are you crazy?" Erna asked. "Hauser won't give us permission. The
basement at this time of night is strengt verboten."
"Don't be a nut," Flip said, "Paul's down there. He came back with me.
We can slip down the back stairs. Oh, come on, kids, do hurry."
Both Erna's and Jackie's faces lit up when Flip mentioned Paul and they
followed her excitedly down the back stairs. For a moment when they got
to the ski room Flip thought that Paul had run out on her, but no; he
turned to meet them with a grin.
"Hello," Paul said, pulling off his cap and bowing.
"Paul, this is Erna and Jackie," Flip said quickly. "Kids, this is Paul
Laurens, Madame's nephew."
They all said hello and sat down on the benches.
Flip began to talk quickly. "Erna and Jackie are my roommates, Paul.
You remember. I told you about them. I would have brought Gloria--you
know, she's our other roommate--but she can't ever keep a secret. If
you want anything spread all over school you just take Gloria aside and
tell it to her as a dead secret and you know everybody'll know about it
in a couple of hours. She's lots of fun, though. Oh, and you know what
we did to her!"
"What?" Paul asked, rather taken aback by this jabbering Flip.
"The ears," Flip said to Erna and Jackie, and the three of them went
off into gales of laughter. "You tell him, Jackie," Flip said.
"Well, Gloria _never_ used to wash her ears," Jackie began, "so we
wrote her a letter pretending it came from Signorina del Rossi--she's
the teacher on our corridor. We didn't dare make it from the matron
because she'd have given us Deportment marks but Signorina's a good
sport. Anyhow, Flip wrote the letter, and she imitated Signorina's
handwriting, and it said that Gloria was to go to Signorina every
morning right after breakfast for ear inspection. Black and
Midnight--she's the matron and sleeps on our corridor, too--inspects
our fingernails every morning but she doesn't look at our ears. So
Gloria got this letter and that evening we heard her washing and
washing in her cubicle and the next morning we hid behind the door to
the back stairs because that's opposite Signorina's room, and Gloria
came and knocked on Signorina's door and we heard her tell Signorina
she'd come for ear inspection. And Signorina was just wonderful. She
never let on that she didn't know what it was all about but looked at
Gloria's ears and told her they were very nice and as long as she kept
them that way she needn't come back."
Paul laughed obligingly, then said, "it's time for me to meet my father
now, but I'll see you all at the ski meet. It's pretty soon now, isn't
it?"
Erna hugged herself in anticipation and said, "Fräulein Hauser told us
at dinner that it was definitely going to be next Saturday. The lists
go up on Friday, and it's tremendously exciting, signing up for things."