“You needn’t keep it from me,” she said in a whisper. “It was you and Patty and Paulie. I knew who you were, ’cos the moon shone on Patty’s Glengarry cap. You needn’t deny it.”
“I do deny it. I didn’t go,” said Briar.
She felt her heart smite her as she told this lie. She walked quickly.
“Do leave me,” she said. “You are a little girl that doesn’t at all know her own place.”
“But I do know it,” said Penelope. “My place is at the seaside. I want to go there. I’m ’termined to go there. If I don’t go one way I’ll go another. Why should Paulie, what is the naughtiest of girls, have all the fun? I don’t mind Renny being there so much. And why should I, what is the very best of girls, be kept stuck here with only nursey and you childrens to bother me? I am going. I’m ’termined.”
She marched away. Patty came up.
“Patty,” said Briar, “I’ve done it.”
“What?” asked Patty.
“I’ve told a lie about it. I said we weren’t on the lawn at all. I told her she was talking nonsense.”
“Couldn’t you have got out of it by any other way?” asked Patty. “It doesn’t seem right to tell lies.”