Letty was sent at twelve o'clock to Miss Lavender's, and the lady sent not only the holiday ticket, but a dinner ticket for both girls; for Letty was not so reticent as her sister, and told the lady, in answer to her questions, that they seldom had but two meals a day, for the work at the docks seemed to be getting worse and worse.
Letty was too full of delight at the prospect of having an extra meal and bringing one home for Winny to inquire what the envelope contained, but she would have been bitterly disappointed if she had known it, for she had told most of her schoolfellows that her sister Winny was going away to the country, and she might be able to walk when she came home. She told Winny just before she went to her dinner that all the girls were very glad she was going, and some of them were coming to see her, and wish her good-bye.
"I wish you hadn't said anything about it," said Winny, and her sister stared at the tone in which the words were spoken, for it was very rarely that Winny spoke so crossly.
"Why shouldn't I tell them? You was going to tell Annie Brown about it," retorted Letty.
"Well, don't say any more about it, especially to Annie Brown if she should happen to come in."
"As if I should talk to a girl who has been to prison," said Letty, tossing her head and looking very disdainful.
"How dare you talk like that?" exclaimed Winny angrily. "You know nothing about such things, and it is not fair to Annie—"
"To say she has been to prison?" interrupted Letty. "Why, everybody knows it, and knows she must be a bad girl, or else she would not be sent there; all the girls have been talking about it, and of course they know. They say she used to get into awful passions when she went to school, and this is what comes of it."
"Then mind you never get into a passion," said Winny, but she spoke so angrily that she might fairly be accused of committing the fault she was warning her sister against.
Letty never remembered Winny speaking to her in this way before, and although she would not own it, either to herself or her sister, she really felt greatly concerned about it. And before she went to school in the afternoon, she said in a more gentle tone, "Don't you feel well, Winny dear?"