The luncheon broke up in a laugh and evidently there were no hard feelings on the part of the host for the criticism of Miss Fern that had so ingenuously fallen from the lips of the irrepressible Billie.
“Billie! What a break!” screamed Jo, when they got outside after Molly had given them all an extra hug for the undying proof of friendship they had given her.
“Break, indeed! I never forgot for an instant that Epi Anti was a near cousin to that maidenhair fern. I just thought I’d let him know how she had acted and how uncomfortable she had made our Molly feel. I knew Molly would never let him know, and I could do it and make out it was a break.”
“Well, if you aren’t like Bret Harte’s heathen Chinee, I never saw one,” laughed Thelma.
“‘Which I wish to remark,
And my language is plain,
That for ways that are dark
And for tricks that are vain,
The heathen Chinee is peculiar.’”
“All the same, I bet old Epi Anti doesn’t tell Molly any more what a sweet thing Alice Fern is.”
“How do you know he did?”
“Insight into human nature,” and Billie made a saucy moue.
“Gee, my back aches!” said Jo. “I think I’ll do housework often. It certainly does reach muscles we don’t know about. But didn’t it pay just to see dear old Molly’s face when we rolled out from behind the sofa?”
And all of them agreed it had.