"Marian's my chum, you see, and does anything I tell her.

And she lives at Katoomba." "Well ?" said Meg, mystified, as her sister paused.

"Well, you see, a lot of the girls had the measles, and so they sent Marian home, for fear she should get them.

And Marian's mother asked for me to go there, too, for a fortnight; and so Miss Burton wrote and asked Father could I?
and I wrote and asked couldn't I come home instead for the time ?" "He never told us," Meg said softly.
"No, I s'pose not.

Well, he wrote back and said 'no' to me and 'yes' to her.