“Well, all right, Anne; but, do you know, I don’t think I’ll go.”
“You won’t go?”
“No. I’ll stay with mother and daddy; they’d be so disappointed if both of us went away this first day of the holidays.”
“Perhaps you are right,” said Anne. “Well, anyhow, I must go over; I must see Kitty.”
Accordingly Anne’s plan was carried out. It was announced by both girls at breakfast. Mr. Dodd opened his eyes; for a minute he was inclined to storm.
Then his wife said, “But I say, my dear, it is a very great honour to be invited to Preston Manor; that’s what I call a real lift for our girls. They have never been at Preston Manor before.”
“No more they have, no more they have. Well, if you take it like that, Mary Anne.”
“Of course, I take it like that. But, Anne, child, wouldn’t it be better for you to wait until a proper invitation comes from Mrs. Wyndham?”
“Oh no, mother,” replied Anne, “because, you see, Jessie and Molly are at perfect liberty to invite any one they like, and they begged and implored of me—of us both—to come and see them immediately. The fact is, we are concocting some little amusement for the Christmas holidays, and we must talk it over, and the sooner the better.”
Grace looked with some wonder at her sister, who was inventing very nearly as cleverly as Kitty herself. But now the result of Anne’s cleverness was that an hour after breakfast she was whirling away in the beautiful motor-car in the direction of Preston Manor. First of all, however, she stopped at the post-office. There she sent a long, explanatory telegram to Miss Weston. The telegram ran as follows: