Charlotte sat on the bed.

The two girls looked at each other--Rose with a certain wary alarm and questioning in her eyes, Charlotte with a dignified confidence of misery.
"I didn't sleep here last night," Charlotte said, at length.
"You went over to Aunt Sylvy's, didn't you ?" returned Rose, as if that were all the matter in hand.
Charlotte nodded, then she looked moodily past her cousin's face out of the window.
"You've heard about it, I suppose ?" said Charlotte.
"Something," replied Rose, evasively.
"I don't see how it got out, for my part.

I don't believe he told anybody." Rose flushed all over her little eager face and her thin neck.

She opened her mouth as if to speak, then shut it with a catch of her breath.
"I can't imagine how it got out," repeated Charlotte.
Rose looked at Charlotte with a painful effort; she clutched her hands tightly into fists as she spoke.

"I was coming up here 'cross lots last night, and I heard you out in the road calling Barney," she said, as if she forced out the words.
"Rose Berry, you didn't tell!" "I went home and told mother, that's all.