"I just as soon wash them again, but they're clean. I thought you said she was gone off to a party and going to be gone till real late."
"Law!" roared Sally, and plumped down to contort herself in comfort. "She thought it was Mrs. Darling herself! Law! law!"
Tibbie laughed, too, but not so heartily, and the great time began.
Sally went for the cake-box, and Tibbie made a thoughtful selection; and "Who'll ever find a few crumbs?" said Sally. "Come along!"
The great child and the little, full of a sense of play, went up the stairs hand in hand. Tibbie could scarcely take account of what was happening to her, such was the pure delight of the adventure.
"This is the dining-room; this is the sitting-room; this is the receiving-room; this, now prepare—this is Mrs. Darling's own room!"
Up went the light; the rose-paper walls, the rose-chintz dumpy chairs, the silver-laden dressing-table, the pink and white draped bed, leaped into sight. Tibbie stood still, open-lipped.
"Ain't it handsome?" asked Sally, with the pride of indirectly belonging to such things. "Come along, I'm going to wash your hands in Mrs. Darling's basin."
She drew Tibbie, who gazed backward over her shoulder, into the little alcove where the marble wash-stand was, and turned on stiff jets of hot and cold water together. At the sweet odor of the soap tablet pushed under her nose, Tibbie's attention was won to the operations of washing and wiping.
"But where is there a hundred of anything?" she asked, faintly, looking all about.