The girls by this time had got so sometimes they'd talk about the Wisners. Bonnie Bell says now:
"Why don't you call on the Wisners any more?"
"Oh, because," says Katherine. "We're friendly, of course, for the families have lived in here so long; but Mrs. Wisner and mommah haven't been very warm since the last Charity Ball business."
"I don't know about that," says Bonnie Bell.
"Oh, Lord! Yes," says Katherine. "They didn't speak for a while. You know, Honey, the Wisners are among our best people. But then, mommah's a Daughter of the Revolution and a Colonial Dame, and a Patriot Son, or something of the sort besides. Mrs. Wisner, she's only a Daughter and not a Dame; so she doesn't rank quite as high as mommah. Some said that she faked her ancestors when she come in too. Anyway, when she tried for the Dames they threw her down. Mommah was Regent or something of the Dames then too—not that I think mommah would do anything that isn't fair. But Old Lady Wisner got her back up then, and she's been hard to curry ever since. We don't try."
"Well," says Bonnie Bell, "isn't that strange? I thought everybody in the Row was friendly except—except——"
"Except the Wisners?" laughed Katherine. "But don't you worry. There's plenty of differences in the Row. They have their fallings out. You see, they all want to be leaders."
"I know," says Bonnie Bell. "In any pack train there always had to be one old gray critter, with the bell."
"That's it!" says Katherine. "Well now, all these leaders of our best people they want to carry the bell and go on ahead. That's what Mrs. Wisner wants—and maybe mommah, though she has a different way of doing things. Mommah's a dear! So are you, Honey; and I do wish Tom and you——"
"I was just wondering who it was got out of their car just now," says Bonnie Bell. "But the fence——"