"We weren't alone," explained Marjorie "Parker went in with us, and he paid for it. Wasn't it all right, Grandma?"
"No; children ought not to go in a shop without older people with them."
"But Parker is older than we are," said Kitty, who was of a literal nature.
"Don't be impertinent, Kitty," said her grandmother. "I do not refer to servants."
Now Kitty had not had the slightest intention of being impertinent, and so the reproof seemed a little unfair.
Unable to control her indignation, when she saw Kitty's feelings were hurt, Marjorie tried to justify her sister.
"Kitty didn't mean that for impertinence, Grandma Maynard," she said. "We didn't know it wasn't right to go for soda water alone, for we always do it at home. The only thing that bothered me was because I didn't have the money to pay for it."
"The money is of no consequence, child; and I suppose you do not know that in the city, children cannot do quite the same as where you live. However, we will say no more about the matter."
This was a satisfactory termination of the subject, but Grandma's manner was not pleasant, and the children felt decidedly uncomfortable.
Their own parents had listened to the discussion in silence, but now their father said, "Don't be too hard on them, Mother; they didn't mean to do anything wrong. And they are good children, if not very conventional ones."