"Lovely!" said Marjorie, clasping her hands. "Only Miss Nelson said——"
"That's just it, you always will think first of Miss Nelson."
"Ermie, you said I thought first of Eric a minute ago."
"That's another of your horrid habits, casting one's words up to one."
Marjorie clasped her hands in front of her, and closed her lips. Her round face looked stubborn.
"I'm sure Eric is in the garden," she said.
"I'll let you go in a minute, you impatient child. Of course Miss Nelson wants us to have lessons, but of course father is the person we must really obey. I know father is going to London to-day, and he will leave by the early train. And what I want you to do is this, Maggie; to wait about for father, and catch him, and get him to consent to give us a holiday to-day. If he says so, of course Miss Nelson has got to submit."
"All right," said Marjorie. "I don't mind a bit. Eric and I can watch for the carriage, and perhaps Macnab will let us drive round to the house. Then we'll do our best to get father to consent."
She did not wait to exchange any more words with her sister, but dashed out of the room.
At eight o'clock the schoolroom party assembled for breakfast. Miss Nelson had decided not to say anything to Ermengarde until the meal was over. Her salutation of the little girl was scarcely more cold than usual, and Ermie sat down to the breakfast-table without the least idea that her delinquency of the day before had been discovered.