"I'm sorry I said I would like to smash your eggs. I won't. I'll try and forgive you. But you're making me awfully miserable, and you know you are."
Peter walked away from her.
"You're making a fuss about nothing," he said; "you chose to think I meant what I didn't mean. It was only a mistake."
He was feeling miserable too, but he would not allow it, and tried to make excuses for himself.
"Such a fuss!" he repeated to himself. "It isn't worth thinking about. I'm sure Mrs. Keith won't really send her to school. She'll forget all about it in a few days."
When Harebell went home she found her uncle pacing the garden paths. He called her to him cheerily, and wished her "Good morning" as usual.
Harebell looked up at him wistfully. She longed to confide in him.
"Well," he said, "how have the lessons gone?"
"Very badly," said Harebell, shaking her head. "I've an extra lesson to learn for not attending; but my soul was in such a state, that I couldn't work at sums, so they got jumbled up."
Her uncle sat down on the garden seat and drew her to him.