CHAPTER VII
THE GREAT PLAN
At that moment the clock—a clock somewhere near—struck. Margaret started, and listened,—'One, two, three.' She looked pleased.
'It's only a quarter to one,' she said. 'Half-an-hour still to my dinner. What time do you need to get home by?'
'A quarter-past will do for us,' I said.
'Oh, then it's all right,' she replied. 'But I must be quick. I want to know all that the parrot told you.'
'It was more what he had said to Mrs. Wylie,' I explained, 'copying you, you know. And, at first, she called you "that poor child," and told us she was so sorry for you.'
'But now she won't say anything. She pinched up her lips about you the other day,' added Peterkin.
Margaret seemed very interested, but not very surprised.
'Oh, then, Miss Bogle is beginning to bewitch her too,' she said. 'Nurse is a goose, as I told you. She just does everything Miss Bogle wants. And if it wasn't for the parrot and you,' she went on solemnly, 'I daresay when Gran comes home he'd find me turned into a pussy-cat.'