"It's more than half-past four!"
"We've been here ever so long."
"We've been waiting for you"—and such like exclamations met them on all sides.
"It's my fault," said Lily. "I was not ready in time, and kept them waiting."
"O Lily!" said Carrie Ransom. "You always do keep people waiting."
"Well, I can't help it," said Lily.
"Yes, you can," said Gracie Howard; "at least, you could if you would do things in time; but you never will."
"I'll grow out of it when I'm bigger," said Lily. "People 'most always cure up their faults before they're grown up."
"Not if they don't take pains with them when they're little," said Bessie, solemnly. "Lily, if you keep on per-cas-ter-nating now, maybe you won't be able to help it when you're grown up, and then people will be provoked with you."
"Were you much provoked with me to-day?" asked Lily.