“You are a dear obliging little girl,” she said. “You can wear my waterproof, and if you bring me back a nice interesting book I’ll—I’ll give you a present.”
“How perfectly lovely!” cried Gretel, her eyes sparkling. “I’ll be right back.” And she darted away to look for her rubbers and umbrella.
When she returned some three minutes later, she found Ada hastily scribbling the titles of some books on a piece of paper.
“Just ask for one of these,” she directed, handing the paper to Gretel. “Any one they happen to have in will do. Now run along like a good child, and hurry back as fast as you can.”
Gretel gave a cheerful nod, slipped the paper in her pocket, and departed, quite forgetting the fact that Miss Marsh had not repeated her offer of lending her a raincoat. In less than twenty minutes she was back again, dripping but triumphant.
“The very first book I asked for was in,” she announced. “Wasn’t it lucky? I’m afraid the cover is rather wet, it’s raining so very hard, but I kept it as dry as I could.”
Ada looked very much pleased.
“You really ought to have taken my raincoat,” she remarked, regretfully; “you look like a drowned rat. Go and dry yourself by the kitchen fire, and you needn’t mention to Mamma that you have been out.”
Ada had already opened her novel, but Gretel still lingered.
“Is it a nice interesting book?” she inquired rather timidly.