Celestina to know--she's as little as me nearly?'

[Illustration: A SECRET. P. 148.]

'Oh, Biddy,' said Alie reproachfully.

But that was all. She knew that argument or persuasion was lost on her
sister once she was started on her hobby-horse, ill-temper. She could
only hope that she would forget about it by degrees. And after a while
it almost seemed so. They went down to the shore, where it was so bright
and pleasant that it did not seem possible for the crossest person in
the world to resist the soft yet fresh breeze, the sunshine glancing on
the sands, the sparkling water in the distance. And Miss Neale was full
of such good ideas. She taught them a new play of trying to walk
blindfold, or at least with their eyes shut, in a straight line, which
_sounds_ very easy, does it not? but is, I assure you, very difficult;
then they had a capital game of puss-in-the-corner, though the corners
of course were only marks in the sand; and with all this it was time
to go home to tea almost before they knew where they were.

'How pretty it must be up in the lighthouse to-day,' said Celestina as
they were turning away.

This was the signal for Bridget's quarrelsomeness again.

'Miss Neale,' she said, shading her eyes from the sun, as she gazed out
towards the sea, 'Celestina does talk such nonsense. She says you can't
walk over the sands to the lighthouse. Now _can't_ you? I can _see_ sand
all the way.'