And go she did at a quarter to eight, and brought home the children, looking much injured. Gillian went upstairs with them, and there was an outburst.
‘It was horrid to be fetched home so soon, just as there was a chance of something nice; when all the tiresome big ones had gone to dress, and we could have had some real fun,’ said Valetta.
‘Real fun! Real sense!’ said Fergus.
‘But what had you been about all this time?’
‘Why, their sisters and a man that was there would come and drink tea in the nursery, where nobody wanted them, and make us play their play.
‘Wasn’t that nice? You are always crying out for Harry and me to come and play with you.’
‘Oh, it wasn’t like that,’ said Val, ‘you play with us, and they only pretended, and played with each other. It wasn’t nice.’
‘Clem said it was—forking,’ said Fergus.
‘No, spooning,’ said Val. ‘The dish ran after the spoon, you know.’
‘Well, but you haven’t told me about the schools,’ said Gillian, in elder sisterly propriety, thinking the subject had better be abandoned.