with the deepest interest, and at this juncture the smaller one softly laid her hand on Clara's arm.
"Do you know, my dear," she said coaxingly, "my sister and I are in the very same predicament! Quite identically the very same predicament! Aren't we, sister?"
"Quite identically and absolutely the very" began the fatter sister, but she was constructing her sentence on too large a scale, and the little one would not wait for her to finish it.
"Yes, my dear," she resumed; "we were lunching at the very same shop as you were—and we had two glasses of lemonade and three sandwiches and five biscuits—and neither of us has the least idea what we paid. Have we, sister?"
"Quite identically and absolutely" murmured the other, who evidently considered that she was now a whole sentence in arrears, and that she ought to discharge one obligation before contracting any fresh liabilities; but the little lady broke in again, and she retired from the conversation a bankrupt.
"Would you make it out for us, my dear?" pleaded the little old lady.
