“Oh,” cried Dorothy, “something must be done!”
“The only thing that I can think of,” said Mrs. Bergham, wiping two tears from her eyes, “is to forget the whole tiresome business. It was horrid of me to say anything at all, but it’s so much on our minds that I cannot help talking about it.”
“I’m very glad indeed,” said Dorothy, “that you did.”
“We were not bored by that story,” Tavia said, “and we surely are very pleased to have had this pleasure of becoming acquainted with Miss Mingle’s sister.”
In another moment the girls began the weary climb down the four flights of stairs.
Reaching the street Dorothy started off at a mad pace.
“I’m so thoroughly provoked,” she said to Tavia, who was a yard behind, “that I must walk quickly or I’ll explode.”
“Well, I’m disgusted too, Dorothy, but I’ll take a chance on exploding, I’m not used to six-day walking races, however much you may be. And incidentally, I must say I should have liked very much to have shaken a certain person until all the languidness was shaken out of her bones!”
“Shaken her!” cried Dorothy, “I should have liked to spank her!”
“If that is an artistic temperament,” said Tavia, “I never wish to meet another. Of all the lackadaisical clinging vines; of all the sentimental, selfish people that ever existed!”