“You can use mine,” Penny said promptly. “Louise has an extra one she’ll let me have.”
Mrs. Deline looked trapped and angry. She sprang to her feet.
“All right, I’ll go swimming!” she announced. “If I catch pneumonia I suppose you’ll be satisfied!”
“Oh, you’ll love the water once you’re in,” Penny said sweetly. “The bath house is this way.”
Mrs. Deline spent so long getting into the borrowed suit that the girls began to fear she had outwitted them. But just as they were ready to give up, the woman came out of the dressing room. Penny’s suit was a size too small for her so that she looked as if she had been poured into it. Her legs were skinny, her hips bulged. She still wore the elephant charm.
“Don’t I wish Dad could see her now!” Penny muttered. “What a disillusionment!”
Ignoring the girls, Mrs. Deline walked stiffly toward the surf. A wave rolled in, wetting her to the knees. Mrs. Deline shrieked and backed away.
“It’s freezing!” she complained.
“You have to get wet all at once,” Penny instructed kindly. “This way.”
She seized Mrs. Deline’s hand and pulled her toward the deeper water.