"The Jones' will board me any time I choose," she said proudly. "I needn't stay here."
"And you'd leave your own home and go to strangers!" Mrs. Gardiner burst into angry tears.
"The Jones' aren't strangers to me. I'm not going to be bothered and meddled with, I can tell you, mother!"
Poor unhappy girl! And poor unhappy mother! Hot words passed between the two, and Bess walked off in a huff, while Mrs. Gardiner sat and cried.
What a contrast to this scene might have been found next door, only just beyond the thin dividing wall.
Breakfast was over in good time; everybody having come down early, looking clean, bright, and happy, in neat fresh attire. Dunn, wearing his "Sunday best" suit, and also his "Sunday best" face of quiet content, sat near the door, with Susie on his knee.
Usually Dick and Susie were off to Sunday school at this hour, but having only just come to the place, they did not yet know about the hours of school. True, Mr. Wilmot had called at Woodbine Cottage, and as a rule his plan was to secure at once the children for Sunday school. But there had been much to talk about in connection with Nancy's narrow escape, and doubtless Mr. Wilmot's own mind had been slightly pre-occupied. Somehow the subject had not been referred to.
"It don't matter for just once. We'll ask somebody at Church, and you can both go in the afternoon," Susan Dunn said.
"I shouldn't wonder if there'll be a Bible Class I can go to as well," remarked Nancy, who was busily washing up the breakfast things. She had quite recovered from the fright of her narrow escape, and was as rosy and pretty as ever.
"Shouldn't wonder if there is," said Dunn. "You'll miss your old class, my girl."