"Why, Lucy Abbott!" whispered Ninny; "was that you stepping just behind me?"
"Behind you? No: why, I'm right here."
"But I heard somebody," said Ninny, pushing back her shaker and looking around nervously.
Yes; and there, not far off, was Mrs. Prim, walking beside a row of currant-bushes. Could she be the one whose steps Ninny had just heard on the gravel path close by her side?
"Lucy," she whispered again, as the lady's figure disappeared behind a syringa-tree. "Lucy Abbott, she was right here a minute ago; and she must have heard what you said."
"Did she? What'd I say?"
"Don't you know, child, you asked me why I didn't steal some money? That's just what you said!"
Lucy only laughed, and little Flaxie pulled a pebble out of her shoe. Lucy and Flaxie were thoughtless children; they never took things to heart as Ninny did; and, as for that little speech, what if Mrs. Prim had heard it, wouldn't she know Lucy was in fun?
But, when they went into the house, Lucy remembered what she had said; and her face was crimson. Somehow she could not raise her eyes for shame.