"No, I don't think I could refuse that, although it does seem a pity to take it out of water. Why, Marion, what are you going to do with it?--put it in my hair! No, no, it's too pretty, and it will wither in such a little while; do take it out!"
"No, I shan't do any such a thing. You gave it to me to do just what I chose with it, and I _choose_ to have it in your hair; so you must not take it out."
"No, Miss Christine, don't!" exclaimed Sarah Brown. "You ought to keep it in, even if it's only to please Marion, for most girls would have stuck it in their own heads; but she never _says_ anything or _does_ anything like most girls."
"Hold your tongue, Sarah!" peremptorily replied Marion; "you don't know what you're talking about."
"Yes, I do," replied Sarah, emphasizing every word with a shake of the head. "I know perfectly well what I am talking about, and you know I know it, and _I_ know I shan't know it much longer without letting somebody else know it; so there!"
"Well, Sarah," said Miss Christine, who could not resist joining Marion in a hearty laugh at Sarah's excited and rather incoherent sentence, "if you and Marion know what you are talking about, that is certainly more than I can say, and as it is never polite to allude to a secret in the presence of a third party. I think I ought to be that somebody else, whom you are 'to let know it;'" and Miss Christine shook her head in laughing imitation of Sarah.
"Well, I'll tell you one thing, Miss Christine; it's about Marion's--"
"Sarah Brown, hold your tongue!" cried Marion, at the same time clapping her hand over Sarah's mouth.
"Marion Berkley, I shan't!" cried Sarah, struggling to free herself, and gasping out at intervals broken sentences perfectly unintelligible to Miss Christine; then, as Marion loosed her hold, she shouted: "It's about Marion's break-down! there!"
"Sarah Brown, you'll be sorry for this!" cried Marion, her eyes flashing with indignation.
"Sarah! Marion!" exclaimed Miss Christine, looking from one to the other in utter amazement. "I don't understand you at all; what is this all about?"
"She doesn't know what she is talking about, and I think she had better mind her own business!" exclaimed Marion.
"I do know what I'm talking about, and it's just as much my business as it is any one else's; if it isn't, I'll make it so."