"I!" said Bessie, opening wide her eyes in undisguised astonishment, "why, no; I am not even trying for it."
"Well, it is too late now, as it is so near Easter," said Harry; "but since the prize is for general improvement and not for any one particular composition, I do not see why you should not have tried and generally improved as well as the others."
"Well, I did try to do the best I could and to improve myself," answered Bessie; "but I did not think about gaining the prize. I know I couldn't."
"Catch Bess not doing her level best for conscience' sake, prizes, or no prizes," said Fred. "Oh, I say, Bess, you are going to begin your music lessons at Easter, are you not?"
The color flushed all over Bessie's face and neck as she answered, after a moment's hesitation, "No, I am not, Fred; and no questions asked."
"'No questions asked,'" repeated Fred, laughing, "but that is rather hard on our curiosity, when you have been so wild for music lessons for the last year or more. What have you been doing that they are forfeited, for I know papa promised them to you after Easter?"
"I told you no questions asked," repeated Bessie, in a slightly irritated tone, and looking very much disturbed.
"Hallo!" said the astonished Fred, taking these for the signs of guilt. "Hallo! our pattern Bess has never been doing anything wrong, has she? And so very wrong that—ouch! Hal, what was that for? I'll thank you not to be kicking me that way under the table!"
For Harry had given him a by no means gentle reminder of that nature; and now his father, too, came to the rescue.
"Let your sister alone, Fred," he said. "I can tell you that she has done nothing wrong. She and I have a little understanding on this matter; but she has forgotten that there is no necessity for doing without the music lessons, and she is, I assure you, to have them. But, as Bessie says, 'no questions asked.' We will drop the subject."