reply to these remarks, and Vava, who liked to be
agreed with, persisted, 'Don't you think it was rather a mean thing to
do?'

'I don't know all the facts of the case; but I hope it was a fair and
square deal, and I should think it was,' he replied at last; but he did
not seem to want to talk about it, and after finishing the lesson he got
up and went away.

But Stella was horrified when Vava repeated this conversation to her.
'How many times am I to tell you not to talk of our private concerns to
strangers?' she exclaimed.

'Well, you must have been talking about them yourself, or how did Mr.
Jones know we were going to take a house at Blackstead?' retorted Vava.

'You must have mentioned the name yourself, and you ought not to have
done so. I certainly never did; besides, we are going to view a house,
not take it,' corrected her sister.

'As it happens, I could not remember the name, and that's why I was so
surprised when Mr. Jones said it,' observed Vava.

Stella was thoughtful for a moment, and then she said, 'I don't know who
can have told him, for only Mr. Stacey knows, unless he heard it from
some one at your school. He is a governor, and sometimes goes there, and
I suppose asked about you, and heard so.'

'I never thought of that; of course that's it!' cried Vava; and then
they met the other two and lunched together.

'Have some pepper?' said Eva suddenly, and produced a quaint little
pepper-pot from her bag.

'Is this another piece of furniture?' demanded Stella, smiling.

'Yes, it cost a halfpenny,' said Eva.

'It looks it,' said Amy severely.

'It will have to go into the kitchen; I won't eat out of it,' declared
Vava, pushing it away with pretended scorn.

'People don't eat out of pepper-pots,' remarked Eva, shaking some on to
her plate.

'It's full! Did you get the pepper and all for a halfpenny?' they cried.

But Eva shook the pepper steadily out till her plate was covered and the
other three were sneezing. 'You seem to have colds,' she observed at
last.

'Eva, you are a perfect plague with your purchases,' said Amy, laughing.

'I got it at a penny bazaar--two for a penny; here is the other,' said
Eva, producing a second, and preparing to empty it.

But Vava made a dart at it, and after a struggle secured it. 'No more of
that, thank you,' she declared.

'You need not have excited yourself; it's empty,' said Eva.

Amy pushed her chair back. 'If you have finished, Miss Wharton, I th