Their mother smiled. "I know I did."
"All the same, after this, you've simply got to 'drink fair, Betsy,' so remember," Hilary warned them.
"Bedtime, Patience," Mrs. Shaw said, and Patience got slowly out of her big, wicker armchair.
"I did think—seeing there was company,—that probably you'd like me to stay up a little later to-night."
"If the 'company' takes my advice, she'll go, too," her mother answered.
"The 'company' thinks she will." Hilary slipped out of the hammock.
"Mother, do you suppose Miranda's gone to bed yet?"
"I'll go see," Patience offered, willing to postpone the inevitable for even those few moments longer.
"What do you want with Miranda?" Pauline asked.
"To do something for me."
"Can't I do it?"