Читать книгу Betty Wales, Junior. A Story for Girls онлайн

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“Has she bobbed up again?” asked Katherine.

“Yes, with a story—novelette you might call it, for it’s desperately long. I brought it with me, so that Madeline and Roberta can see what atrocities their clever young friend is guilty of.”

Sudden terror froze Roberta into speechless immobility, and she sank helplessly back against the couch pillows, while Madeline, shrieking with glee, demanded the whereabouts of the manuscript, and drew it triumphantly from Mary’s ulster pocket.

“Why not read it aloud?” asked Katherine. “It isn’t time to eat yet, and we’ve congratulated Rachel until she’s tired.”

“Great idea!” assented Babe. “I love footless stories. Bob always reads me the ones she writes.”

“Does Bob write stories?” cried Katherine. “I say, Bob——”

“You wretch,” cried Bob, falling upon her accuser with the violence born of much basket-ball practice. “Footless stories indeed! You’ll never hear another.”

In the heat of the fray it was some time before “The Merry Hearts” discovered that a double battle was going on in their midst. While Bob pummeled Babe, Roberta was frantically trying to wrench Georgia’s story from Madeline’s firm grasp.