“I know exactly,” she said, “how much muslin was bought: five yards for me, because I was not to have flounces; and seven yards for Josephine and eight yards for you, Fanchon, because you are the tallest.”
“Well, yes—I suppose that is all right,” said Fanchon; but she began, as she said afterwards, to see some method in her sister’s present madness.
“Now,” continued Nina, “I want to cast up a sum. Five—and seven—and eight. Fanchon, do tell me how much five and seven and eight make.”
“Twenty,” was Fanchon’s immediate reply. “Dear, dear! now I can’t find my thimble!”
“Oh, Fanchon—it’s rolled away into that corner.”
“Pick it up, Nina.”
“No,” said Nina—“not yet. How much, please, does twenty yards of muslin, at sixpence halfpenny a yard, come to?”
The sum was made up by Fanchon, who was quite quick at arithmetic.
“Ten shillings and ten-pence,” she replied.
“Yes, I thought so—and there were no linings of any kind got; for dear Brenda said that we could use up some of the frocks we had outgrown, for that purpose. So our three muslin frocks cost exactly ten shillings and ten-pence. It doesn’t seem much for three girls, does it, Fanchon?”