Page:Girls of Central High on the Stage.djvu/171

Rh "Why—why, what is it?" demanded Jess, mystified.

"Oh, don't! Wait till I laugh!" chuckled Bobby, when they were around the corner of the corridor again. "Isn't that rich?"

"Who was it talking?" asked Jess.

"Talking! Didn't you recognize that oration?"

"I did not. Mother doesn't allow me to read any penny-dreadful story papers, magazines of books."

"Oh, ho! Wait!" gasped Bobby. "That's Lil."

"Lily Pendleton?"

"You evidently haven't heard any of the 'Duchess of Dusenberry' before. That's it!"

"Not part of her play?"

"That is one of the melodramatic bits," said Bobby, weakly, leaning against the wall for support. "Yes, really, Jess. That is in her play. I've heard her recite it before."

"My goodness me!" gasped Jess.

"It's not all so bad, I guess. But when she gets flowery and romantic she just tears off such paragraphs as that. 'Nor can you hide the cloven hoof beneath the edge of Virtue's robe.' Isn't that a peach?"

"Bobby!" exclaimed Jess, breathless herself