She longed to say that she did not want to, but for once she did not quite dare to say what she thought.
Then there was an awkward pause. Floretta could not think what to say next, while Arabella did not try.
Silence never made her uneasy. She could stare at any one who sat opposite her, for a half-hour, without so much as winking, and it rather amused her if the other person became nervous, and wriggled uneasily beneath her persistent stare. At last Floretta spoke.
"You might take some of those things off," she said; "you won't need them while you stay."
"Aunt Matilda told me not to," said Arabella, "and if I did, it would be just my luck to have her come right by here, and see me with them off. My! Wouldn't she be angry?"
Arabella's eyes dilated as she asked the question.
"Does your Aunt Matilda poke 'round after you like that?" asked Floretta.
"She doesn't ever seem to follow me, but all the same, she's always catching me doing something."
"Then you do risk doing what she tells you not to," said Floretta, with a saucy laugh.
"Look here!" cried Arabella, "I don't know you, but I'm going to tell you something. I can't do one single thing I want to, neither can my papa or mamma. Aunt Matilda is little, and my papa is big. He says he was centre-rush on the college football team, but when Aunt Matilda tells him what to do, he says, 'Yes'm,' and does it. One of our neighbors at home says Aunt Matilda holds the purse-strings, but I don't know what that means. Her purse hasn't any strings on it."