"You'll believe in your pretty frocks, and nice hats, and nice shoes and charming gloves, and also in the little treats at the different tea shops which I mean to give you all out of dear papa's money--" "That is, of course, if we don't tell," said Fanchon. "Oh, you can please yourself about that," said Brenda. "You can tell, and everything will be at an end. I shall go away from here; I will give him back the money--I have it in that drawer--and he will take my poor little character as well, and I'll wander forth into the world, a desolate and ruined girl. You won't go to the sea--you'll stay at home. You'll have your victory. In a few weeks a horrid, elderly governess with spectacles, and perhaps with a squint, will come here. I'm sure your father will be afraid to get any one young and--and--pretty--again. When _she_ comes, she will give you--" "Beans!" said Fanchon. "I know the sort--I--I don't want a horrible thing like that in the house." "No--poor Brenda is better than that, isn't she?" "Oh, Brenda, you _are_ so clever," laughed Fanchon. When Brenda heard that laugh, she knew that her victory was assured. "My dear girl," she said, "believe me or not; that was my real reason for keeping back the money, and your terrible little Nina can keep an account of all that I spend at Marshlands, and satisfy her wise, _odious_ little head with the fact that I am not holding back one penny for myself. She can do that, and you can all have a good time. Now-- what do you say?" "It sounds--if you had not told that first lie--it sounds almost as if it could just be believed," said Fanchon. "It can be acted on, whether it is believed or not," remarked Brenda. Fanchon was silent. Brenda watched her narrowly. "I have something to say to you," she remarked, all of a sudden. "Of course you won't speak to your papa and get me dismissed, and lose all your own fun--no three girls would be so mad. But I have something more to say. I want _you_, Fanchon, to be my friend." "Oh--I!" said Fanchon--"but mice are never friendly with cats, are they?" "You mustn't think of me as a cat, dear, nor of yourself as a mouse. The simile is very painful, and you know how I have talked to you about the pleasant time I trust to have at Marshlands; and you shall help me, and look very, very smart when you come out with me in the evenings. Do you remember my telling you that if you are my friend, I might get you a little bangle to wear?" "Oh, yes--but I am certain it would be a horrid gilt thing not worth anything." "Fanchon--you _are_ unkind! I told you in the utmost confidence that I had been left a tiny legacy--a little, _little_ sum of money, very precious to poor me, but very small. Well, I did not forget my pupil, and I have bought her a bangle." "Oh, Brenda, _have_ you?"