“I don’t know,” said Fanchon, crossly. “Why will you bother us in this queer way, Nina?”
“Well—I am thinking,” said Nina; “you will see my meaning after a bit. After Brenda had got the frocks and paid for them—only she did it so quickly, I can’t make out how much money she put down—she bought the hats. The hats untrimmed were one shilling each, she bought a yard of white muslin to trim each and the white muslin was eight-pence a yard. She grumbled at the price. Three times eight is—”
“Oh—two shillings, two shillings!” said Josephine.
“Well, yes—that is quite right,” said Nina. “Our three hats, trimmed, came to five shillings. Add five shillings to ten and ten-pence—that makes fifteen and ten-pence. Then there were our sand shoes—one and eleven-pence each—they came to five and nine-pence; and our gloves;—white washing gloves—don’t you remember what a fuss Brenda made about them, and said that she would wash them herself for us at night, so that they would be clean every day? and I know they were only sixpence. Now then—let us count up the whole sum.”
The other two girls were now immensely interested. They did count the sum, doing it wrong once or twice, but finally producing a total which could not be gainsaid, and which came out precisely at one pound, three shillings, and a penny. Nina’s little white face was flushed when this great task had been accomplished.
“Can you remember any other single thing?” she asked of her sisters.
“No, there was nothing else,” said Josephine.
“And did Brenda say, or did she not, that she had spent a lot of money on us, and that we must do with it, whether we liked it or not, because there was not a farthing more that could be produced?”
“Well, yes, she did,” said Fanchon, “and it seemed a lot at the time—at least, I thought so.”
Nina rose solemnly now from her little stool. “Girls,”—she said—“I have something to say to you. I have found Brenda out. She spent one pound—three shillings—and one penny—on us, and do you know how much money father gave her to spend upon us?”