"Don't add hypocrisy to lies," said her aunt sharply. "You are not to come downstairs to-night. Go to bed, and remember that I might have forgiven your disobedience—but I will never forgive lying!"
She left the room.
Harebell flung herself on the floor.
"I shall never, never be happy again! I'm not a liar, I'm not even disobedient; it's all a muddling mistake, and it's Peter, and not me, who ought to be punished!"
She began to feel justly angry with Peter.
"He'll go on living and people will think him a good boy, and I shall be thought a liar for ever and ever! And school is a prison, and—oh, I never thought of it! I shall have to leave my darling Chris! My heart will be broken. I wish I could die!"
She lay there sobbing her heart out, and Goody, entering the room later, was much astonished and alarmed.
Harebell raised a white tear-stained face to her.
"I ought to be in bed," she said slowly. "Aunt Diana said I was to go. She thinks I've told a lie, and I haven't, Goody, and I'm to be sent to school in disgrace."
"Dearie me! What an upset! You must get hold of the Colonel. He'll put things right."