"Oh, I don't know," Valerie. "It's just as likely to be some way she's planning for a chance to show off."
Betty laughed.
"Did you hear Vera Vane telling about the afternoon that Patricia knocked at her door, and said that she had come to 'make a call'?"
"I didn't hear that," said Valerie. "What did she do?"
"She was wearing all the rings and bangles that she owned, and in her hand was a card-case, just as if she were grown up. She sat on the tip edge of her chair, and she kept taking out her handkerchief, and shaking it because it was drenched with perfumery, and when she went, she emptied the card-case on the table, and Vera counted the cards. Say, Patricia had left fifty. Wasn't that funny?"
"Hush—sh!" breathed Valerie, "she might hear you."
Patricia rushed forward, while Arabella, as usual, hung back, preferring to stare at Betty and Valerie through her spectacles, rather than have a little chat.
She wanted to watch their faces, and see if they were greatly surprised with the news that Patricia had to tell.
"Guess where we're going!" Patricia cried, "but you couldn't guess, so I'll tell you. We're going over to the well, the one that's called the wishing-well," she explained, "and we mustn't tell what we mean to wish for, 'cause if you tell, you wouldn't get your wish. Did you know that?"
Betty said that she had not heard that.