Page:Carroll Rankin--Dandelion Cottage.djvu/180

 158  deterred. "I'm only telling the truth. Laura took our handkerchiefs and then fibbed about it and we've missed a dozen things since that she probably carried off and"

"Mabel, Mabel!" warned Jean, pressing her hand over Mabel's too reckless lips. "Don't you know that we decided not to say a word about those other things? They didn't amount to anything and we'd rather have peace than to make a fuss about them."

"I can see very plainly," said Mrs. Milligan, with cold disapproval, "that you're not at all the proper sort of children for my little Laura to play with—I forbid you to speak to her again; I don't care to have her associate with you. I can believe all she says about you for I've never been treated so rudely in my life."

"Apologise, Mabel," whispered Jean, whose arm was still about the younger girl's neck.

"If I was rude," said candid Mabel, "I