“I got it out of Lottie. She’s such a baby she didn’t know she was telling me. There was nothing nasty at all in speaking to Miss Minchin. I felt it my duty”—priggishly. “She was being deceitful. And it’s ridiculous that she should look so grand, and be made so much of, in her rags and tatters!”
“What were they doing when Miss Minchin caught them?”
“Pretending some silly thing. Ermengarde had taken up her hamper to share with Sara and Becky. She never invites us to share things. Not that I care,
and Nora exchanged glances.
“A beggar girl would never have said that,” decided Janet. “She would have said, `Thank yer kindly, little gentleman— thank yer, sir;’ and perhaps she would have bobbed a curtsy.”
Sara knew nothing about the fact, but from that time the Large Family was as profoundly interested