and went on in such a funny strain that the children roared.
Then, quite suddenly, they heard voices very near them. They stopped their talk, startled. Who could be so near?
They peeped out of the summer-house. They saw Mrs. Moon, with some lettuces in her hand, talking to a stranger over the wall, almost within touch of their summer-house.
‘Well, that’s what I always say, Miss Tittle,’ they heard Mrs. Moon say. ‘If a thing’s too tight, it’s not worth wearing!’
‘You’re quite right,’ said the little, neat woman looking over the wall. ‘But people will have their things made so tight. Well, do come in and see me about that dress of yours, Mrs. Moon, sometime. I’d enjoy a good talk with you.’
‘I bet she would,’ whispered Daisy. ‘The two of them together would just about pull every one in Peterswood to pieces!’
‘Miss Tittle didn’t look a very nice person,’ said Bets, watching Mrs. Moon go down the path with her lettuces. She had obviously just been up the kitchen garden nearby to pull them.
‘I suppose you realize that we’ve been talking very loudly, and that both Miss Tittle and Mrs. Moon could have heard every word, if they’d been listening?’ said Fatty, witn a groan. ‘I never thought of anyone coming up here. Miss Tittle must have been just the other side of the wall, and Mrs. Moon must have come up to get the lettuces. They grow quite near the summer-house. Now both will be on their guard, if they’ve heard what we’ve been saying!’
‘They won’t have heard!’ said Pip.
‘They may quite well have done,’ said Fatty. ‘What idiots we are. Really! Giving all our clues and facts away at the tops of our voices. And Bets reading out loud from my notes!’