‘No’ to them all, quite brazenly, and then she said—what do you think that girl said?”
“Oh, what?” breathed Mrs. Ann Cyrilla eagerly.
“She said, ‘Can you stand on one foot and lift your other to a level with your eyes, Miss Potter? I can.’ And”—Miss Potter hushed her tone to the proper pitch of horror—“she did it!”
The listener in the closet stifled a spasm of laughter in Cousin Jimmy’s grey jumper. How madcap Ilse did love to shock Miss Potter!
“Good gracious, were there any men around?” entreated Mrs. Ann Cyrilla.
“No—fortunately. But it’s my belief she would have done it just the same no matter who was there. We were close to the road—anybody might have been passing. I felt so ashamed. In my time a young girl would have died before she would have done a thing like that.”
“It’s no worse than her and Emily bathing by moonlight up on the sands without a stitch on,” said Mrs. Ann Cyrilla. “That was the most scandalous thing. Did you hear about it?”
“Oh, yes, that story’s all over Blair Water. Everybody’s heard it but Elizabeth and Laura. I can’t find out how it started. Were they seen?”
“Oh, dear no, not so bad as that. Ilse told it herself. She seemed to think it was quite a matter of course. I think some one ought to tell Laura and Elizabeth.”
“Tell them yourself,” suggested Miss Potter.
“Oh, no, I don’t want to get in wrong with my neighbours. I am not responsible for Emily Starr’s training, thank goodness. If I were I wouldn’t let her have so much to do with Jarback Priest, either. He’s the queerest of all those queer Priests. I’m sure he must have a bad influence over her. Those green eyes of his positively give me the creeps. I can’t find out that he believes in anything.”
(Emily, sarcastically again: “Not even the Devil?”)
“There’s a queer story going around about him and
