We boys were sprawling on the grass . Our morning chores were done and the day was before us . We should have been feeling very comfortable and happy , but , as a matter of fact , we were not particularly so . The Story Girl was sitting on the mint beside the well-house , weaving herself a wreath of buttercups . Felicity was sipping from the cup of clouded blue with an overdone air of unconcern . Each was acutely and miserably conscious of the other 's presence , and each was desirous of convincing the rest of us that the other was less than nothing to her . Felicity could not succeed . The Story Girl managed it better . If it had not been for the fact that in all our foregatherings she was careful to sit as far from Felicity as possible , we might have been deceived . We had not passed a very pleasant week . Felicity and the Story Girl had not been `` speaking '' to each other , and consequently there had been something rotten in the state of Denmark . An air of restraint was over all our games and conversations . On the preceding Monday Felicity and the Story Girl had quarrelled over something . What the cause of the quarrel was I can not tell because I never knew . It remained a `` dead secret '' between the parties of the first and second part forever . But it was more bitter than the general run of their tiffs , and the consequences were apparent to all . They had not spoken to each other since . This was not because the rancour of either lasted so long . On the contrary it passed speedily away , not even one low descending sun going down on their wrath . But dignity remained to be considered .
Neither would `` speak first , '' and each obstinately declared XXXXX she would not speak first , no , not in a hundred years .
If as because before between for from of that with