Harebell knitted her brows, then she looked up and said quietly:
"I suppose a boarding-school is a dreadful place? We haven't got them in India, not for white children. Is a mission school a boarding-school? I think they're made with boards, but I'm not sure."
"We won't discuss the matter," Mrs. Keith said coldly. "I have told you the conditions under which you stay in my house."
Harebell looked at her aunt in silence for a minute. Her extreme composure irritated her aunt.
"If you understand me, you had better go to bed. It is getting very late."
"I have told lies," Harebell said slowly and thoughtfully. "When I was very little I did. I had an ayah who frightened me, and I said I hadn't picked some flowers when I had. I'll try not to tell any to you. Daddy told me it wasn't playing the game if I did. Good-night, Aunt Dinah."
"My name is Diana. Good-night."
She did not offer to kiss her. Harebell went upstairs very slowly. There was a little choke in her throat. She suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of loneliness and misery come over her. She crept into her little bedroom; then throwing herself down on the hearthrug before the fire, she burst into a passion of tears.
"Oh, what shall I do! What shall I do! Nobody loves me here; nobody wants me! Oh, I wish I could run away to Mr. Graham. I wish he'd taken me to see his old mother!"
She was tired and overwrought. Half an hour later, Goody found her lying in the same position, but she had sobbed herself asleep. It was with difficulty that she roused her sufficiently to undress her.