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who obediently ate them while their hostesses devoured the chocolate creams. More chocolates, and more pieces of bread were produced.
“Marblar-Marblar or Sarblar-Sarblar?” asked Jo.
“Sarblar-Sarblar,” returned Connie, her eyes fixed on the chocolates.
Again the dry bread was proffered. Connie looked bewildered.
“I said Sarblar-Sarblar,” she said.
“That’s it.”
“Oh! Is it?”
“Yes.”
Biddy was quite gravely eating the chocolate, but Jo was choking over hers in fits of unholy mirth. For whether the Ralstons chose Marblar-Marblar or Sarblar-Sarblar, they always got dry bread; and being assured that they had got what they asked for, they ate it.
Ann knew that the perfect governess would interrupt the proceedings and insist upon these imperfect hostesses behaving properly; but seeing that the party appeared to be progressing quite amicably, she decided that discretion was the better part of government, and returned unseen to the house.
3.
Ann, having given the little girls their tea, was sitting in her own room endeavoring to finish the hat before dinner, when Vera Holmes entered. The storm of passion earlier in the afternoon had evidently had the effect of relieving the elder woman’s nervous tension. She was once more charming, gracious, and looking very handsome in her vivid evening gown.