Self-betrayal
The old lady was very aristocratic, but somewhat prim and precise.
Nevertheless, when the company had been telling of college pranks, she
relaxed slightly, and told of a lark that had caused excitement in
Cambridge when she was a girl there. This was to the effect that two
maidens of social standing were smuggled into the second-story room of a
Harvard student for a gay supper. The affair was wholly innocent, but
secre
y was imperative, to avoid scandal. The meal was hardly begun when
a thunderous knock of authority came on the door. The young men acted
swiftly in the emergency. Silently, one of the girls was lowered to the
ground from the window by a rope knotted under her arms. The second girl
was then lowered, but the rope broke when the descent was hardly half
completed.
The old lady had related the incident with increasing animation, and at
this critical point in the narrative she burst forth:
"And I declare, when that rope broke, I just knew I was going to be
killed, sure!"