human
Somebody walked down the passage, proclaimed Lennie Jackson.
gpt
Enid thought it was a ghost.
human
I thought it was somebody walking in her sleep,
gpt
Oh, how horrid! shivered Barbara Wright.
human
I'd be scared to death of anyone sleep-walking. I'd rather meet a ghost any day.
gpt
Did you see somebody?
human
No, it was only what we heard--stealthy footsteps, you know, that moved softly along, just as they're described in a horrible book I read in the holidays--_The Somnambulist_ it was called--about a man who was always going about in the night with fixed, stony eyes, and appearing on the tops of roofs and all sorts of spooky places. It gives me the creeps to think of it. Ugh!
gpt
When people walk in their sleep it's fearfully dangerous to awaken them,
human
Is it? Why?
gpt
Oh, it gives them such a terrible shock, they often don't get over it for ages! You ought to take them gently by the hand and lead them back to bed.
human
And suppose they won't go?
gpt
Ask me a harder! I say, there's the second bell. Scootons nous vite! Do you want to get an order mark?
human
Look here, said Betty to her room-mates that evening,
gpt
Yearning for a what?
human
Yearning for a sensation, repeated Betty.
gpt
Life at an ordinary boarding-school is extremely dull. 'The daily round, the common task', is apt to pall. What we all crave for is change, and especially change of a spicy, unexpected sort that makes you jump.
human
I don't want to jump, thanks.
gpt
Perhaps you don't, but those girls in No. 8 do. They're longing for absolute creeps--only a ghost, or a burglar, or an air raid, or something really stirring, would content them.
human
I'm afraid they'll have to go discontented then.
gpt
Certainly not. As I remarked before, we ought to be philanthropic and provide a little entertainment to cheer them up. I have a plan.
human
Proceed, O Queen, and disclose it then.
gpt
Barbara Wright suggested it to me--not intentionally, of course. We'll play a rag on them. One of us must pretend to sleep-walk and go into their room. It ought to give them spasms. Do you catch on?
human
Rather!
gpt
But who's going to do the sleep-walking business?
human
Marjorie's the best actress. We'll leave it to her. Give us a specimen now, old sport, and show us how you'll do it. Oh, that's ripping! It'll take them in no end. I should like to see Barbara's face.