“Of course you have a court?”
“Only a chip one the boys made; but it does very well.”
It was Meg’s answer. Nellie grew red, and wondered why her sister could not have contented herself with “Yes, of course!” seeing there was small chance the Fitzroy-Brownes would ever be asked inside the gates of Misrule.
Miss Browne was silent a minute, then she said,—
“We have three beautiful grass courts. I wish, Miss Woolcot, you would come up and have a game with us sometimes—and your sister, of course; we should be glad to see your brother as well, if he would care to come.”
Meg tried not to look surprised, and did her best to find “the right word for the right place.”
“Thank you very much,” she said; “but our afternoons are very much filled, I am afraid we should not be able to.”
“Then come in the morning,” urged Miss Browne. “We always practise in the morning—it fills the time, for, of course, there is nothing else for us to do.”
[169]
]“I am always busy in the morning, and my brother is at lectures,” Meg said; “thank you all the same.”
“Well, your sister,” said Miss Browne. “Won’t you come, Miss Nellie? You can’t be busy as well.”