"You haven't told me why you were there."
"Because I was silly," she said emphatically.
"Do silly people always hide in blackberry vines?" he questioned, laughing.
"Silly people like me," she said.
At that moment they stopped in front of the gate of Marjorie's home; through the lilac-bushes—the old fence was overgrown with lilacs—Hollis discerned some bright thing glimmering on the piazza. The bright thing possessed a quick step and a laugh, for it floated towards them and when it appeared at the gate Hollis found that it was only Linnet.
There was nothing of the mouse about Linnet.
"Why, Marjie, mother said you might stay till dark."
Linnet was seventeen, but she was not too grown up for "mother said" to be often on her lips.
"I didn't want to," said Marjorie. "Good-bye, Hollis. I'm going to hunt eggs."
"I'd go with you, it's rare fun to hunt eggs, only I haven't seen
Linnet—yet."