u
childrens to bother me? I am going. I'm 'termined."

She marched away. Patty came up.

"Patty," said Briar, "I've done it."

"What?" asked Patty.

"I've told a lie about it. I said we weren't on the lawn at all. I told
her she was talking nonsense."

"Couldn't you have got out of it by any other way?" asked Patty. "It
doesn't seem right to tell lies."

"I could with any one but Pen; but Pen can see through a brick wall. I
had to tell it, and very plump, too, where Pen was in the question."

"Well, it makes me feel horrid," said Patty. "I am sorry we went. I think
we did awfully wrong."

"We did it for Paulie. We'd do more than that for her," replied Briar.

"I suppose so. I certainly love Paulie very much," answered Patty.

"And, Patty," continued Briar, "having told such a great black lie to
help her, we must go through with it. Pen means mischief. She's the sort
of child who would do anything to gain anything. She wants to go to the
seaside, and she wouldn't mind whom she got into trouble if it suited her
own ends. We must remember she means mischief, and if she talks again
about three figures on the lawn, you and I have got to stick to it that
we didn't go. Do you understand?"

"I do, and I consider it awful," said Patty.

She did not add any more, but went slowly into the house. Presently,
feeling much depressed, she sought nurse's society. Nurse was turning
some of the girls' skirts. She was a good needlewoman, and had clung to
the house of Dale through many adverse circumstances. She was enjoying
herself at present, and used often to say that it resembled the time of
the fat kine in Egypt.

"Ah, Miss Patty!" she cried. "It's glad I am to see you, darling."

"Can I do anything for you, nursey?" asked Patty.

"Of course you can, dear. You can help me to unpick this frock. I am
cutting it down to fit Miss Pen. It will make a very neat frock for her,
and it seems unfair that dear Miss Tredgold should be at more expense
than is necessary."

"Why," asked Patty, with a surprised look, "doesn't father pay for the
things?"

"Mr. Dale!" cried nurse in a tone of wrath, "I'd like to see him. It's
not that he wouldn't, and for all I can tell he may have the money; but,
bless you, darling! he'd forget it. He'd forget that there was such a
thing as dress wanted in all the world; and servants and food, and the
different things that all well-managed houses must have, couldn't lie on
his memory while you wer