It was too bad of Pen, quite too bad, not to have warned her! And now the mischief was done. Patricia Vincent would never forget. Pen would go in and win; while she, as usual, would be nowhere in the race.
And all because she had not first rushed upstairs, to smooth her hair and wash her hands! Such nonsense!
As if Pen had not friends enough already! Just the single girl that she wanted for herself! If she might have Patricia, Pen was welcome to the rest of the world. But that was always the way! If one cared for a thing particularly, that thing was certain to be out of reach.
She was smarting still over the thought of that refused handshake; but her anger all went in the direction of Pen, not of Patricia. Pen alone was to blame!
Presently the front door was opened and shut; and then Mrs. Royston came in, moving with her usual graceful deliberation.
"What could have made you behave so, Magda?" she asked. "To come before callers in such a state!"
Magda was instantly up in arms. "Pen never told me there were callers."
"She did not know it. She would have reminded you how untidy you were—certainly in no condition to come into the drawing-room, even if I had been alone! But you show so much annoyance if she speaks."
"Pen is always in the right, of course."
"That is not the way to speak to me. I would rather have had this happen before anybody than before Mrs. Framley."