“A bathe! Where? Why?”
“In the little pool by the fig-tree. Because I want to.”
“Very well, I’ll come with you.”
“That would be lovely,” said Katya, “if I were selfish enough to allow you. But you’d make yourself ill, climbing up there in the sun.”
“But, Katya....”
“You know you would, mamma. No, I’m going alone. No one ever goes near the place: I shall be quite all right.”
And when she had finished her breakfast, she went to her room, put on a big sun-hat, took a towel from her bedroom cupboard, and stepped very silently downstairs. But her mother issued from the drawing-room just as her daughter reached the bottom of the stairs.
“But you have nothing to cover yourself with—no bathing costume!” Mrs. Kontorompa objected.
“Ah, that’s just it!” said Katya mischievously.
“What is?”