"Yes, I do," replied Sarah, emphasizing every word with a shake of the head. "I know perfectly well what I am talking about, and you know I know it, and I know I shan't know it much longer without letting somebody else know it; so there!"
"Well, Sarah," said Miss Christine, who could not resist joining Marion in a hearty laugh at Sarah's excited and rather incoherent sentence, "if you and Marion know what you are talking about, that is certainly more than I can say, and as it is never polite to allude to a secret in the presence of a third party. I think I ought to be that somebody else, whom you are 'to let know it;'" and Miss Christine shook her head in laughing imitation of Sarah.
"Well, I'll tell you one thing, Miss Christine; it's about Marion's—"
"Sarah Brown, hold your tongue!" cried Marion, at the same time clapping her hand over Sarah's mouth.
"Marion Berkley, I shan't!" cried Sarah, struggling to free herself, and gasping out at intervals broken sentences perfectly unintelligible to Miss Christine; then, as Marion loosed her hold, she shouted: "It's about Marion's break-down! there!"
"Sarah Brown, you'll be sorry for this!" cried Marion, her eyes flashing with indignation.
"Sarah! Marion!" exclaimed Miss Christine, looking from one to the other in utter amazement. "I don't understand you at all; what is this all about?"
"She doesn't know what she is talking about, and I think she had better mind her own business!" exclaimed Marion.
"I do know what I'm talking about, and it's just as much my business as it is any one else's; if it isn't, I'll make it so."
"Girls! girls! you cannot think how you grieve and astonish me. Do you know how you are talking? Your language is unladylike in the extreme. But"—turning to Sarah—"even that is not so unpardonable as the thoughtlessness which could lead you to speak of Marion's failure last night, when you know it must be extremely unpleasant for her to have it alluded to in any way."