"But," said Mabel, cheerfully, "by holding my breath most of the time I can stand it for one hour on Sundays."
"How would you like," asked Mrs. Crane, "to spend to-morrow with me and Rosa Marie?"
"We'd love to," said Jean.
"We'd like it a lot," said Marjory.
"Just awfully," breathed Bettie.
"Oh, goody!" gurgled Mabel.
"You see," said Mrs. Crane, "I'm not altogether easy about Rosa Marie. I do every living thing I can think of, but someway I can't get inside that child's shell. I declare, it seems sometimes as if she really pities me for being so stupid. And I think she's falling off in her looks."
"Oh, I hope not," cried Mabel, fervently.
"No," agreed Marjory, "it certainly wouldn't do for Rosa Marie to fall off very much."
"However," returned Mrs. Crane, loyally, "she might be very much worse and at any rate she is warm and well fed, even if she does seem a bit—foreign. So that Janitor put you down through the dust-chute, did he, Mabel? You must have landed with quite a jolt."