"Very true," Mrs. Eland said quietly. "I believe my little sister learned it listening to mother and me saying it over and over."
"Ah! yes," Miss Pepperill observed. "Your sister? I suppose much younger than you?"
"Oh, no; only about four years younger," said Mrs. Eland, sadly. "But I lost her when we were both very young."
"Oh! ah!" was Miss Pepperill's abrupt comment. "Death is sad—very sad," and she shook her head.
At the moment somebody spoke to the matron and called her away. Otherwise she might have stopped to explain that her sister had been actually lost, and that she had no knowledge as to whether she were dead or alive.
The red-haired teacher and the two little Corner House girls went on to the children's ward.
CHAPTER XIX
A THANKSGIVING SKATING PARTY
The rehearsal of The Carnation Countess that afternoon went most dreadfully.
"It really is a shame!" chuckled Neale to Agnes, as he sat beside her for a few minutes after the boys acquitted themselves very well in their part. "It really is a shame," he went on, "what some of you girls can do to a part when it comes to acting. Talk about Hamlet's father being murdered to make a Roman holiday!"