"He doesn't adore them much," said Young George. "He told me that it was a bore having a lot of sisters, and he'd swop the lot for a twin brother."
"Odious little beast!" said Beatrix. "Why a twin brother?"
"Oh, because he says he's the nicest fellow himself that he knows, and he'd like to have somebody of the same sort to do things with. He's really a comic bloke. I'm sure you'll like him. I expect he'll be over here pretty often. I don't suppose he really meant it about his sisters."
"Then he oughtn't to have said it, just for the sake of being funny," said Caroline. "I hope you weren't led into saying that yours were a bore, Bunting."
"No," said Young George. "I said you weren't bad sorts, and I thought he'd like you all right when he saw you. He said he'd come over some time and make an inspection."
"We'll inspect him when he does come," said Barbara. "The Beckley girls are rather bread and buttery. They've got pigtails and a Mademoiselle, and go for walks in the country. The Dragon and I met them once, and we had a little polite conversation before they agreed to go their way and we went ours."
"Barbara dear, I don't think you should get into the way of criticising everybody," said Miss Waterhouse. "I thought they were particularly nice girls."
"Yes, darling, you would," said Barbara. "If I wore a pigtail and said au revoir instead of good-bye, you'd think I was a particularly nice girl. But I'm sure you wouldn't love me as much as you do."
"Vera isn't bread and buttery," said Caroline, "though she's rather quiet. Jimmy seems to have all the high spirits of the family. I told her we'd deal with him if she sent him over here. We'd broken Bunting in, and we'd break him in for her."
"Any other nice people about to play with?" asked Bunting. "I suppose you've got to know them all now."