“Oh, nothing. Come, Lillie, are you going?”
“No, she isn’t,” uttered Jennie, imperatively.
“You can’t hinder me.”
“I’ll tell papa.”
“Well, tell him.”
“I’ll go now, and Mrs. Hill will lock you up, if I speak to her.”
“Oh, dear, there’s another mistress, is there? Why, it’s a wonder you get liberty to eat or sleep,” exclaimed Mary, mockingly.
“I did not care about going on the ice,” said Lillie, standing up and looking wrathfully at Jennie, “but since you have made yourself so disagreeable about it, I will go. So there’s nobody to blame but yourself. Papa has told you never to speak to me in that manner, many a time.”
The two strode down stairs and out of the house with much dignity, leaving Jennie in great anger. But presently, the excitable girl’s nerves grew more quiet, a feeling of sorrow took the place of her wrath, and her tender conscience began to accuse her of hastiness and sinfulness in provoking her sister. It was not long before every other thought was forgotten in an intense feeling of self-reproach, and, like all impulsive persons, she went quickly from one extreme to another, and acquitted Lillie of all blame, laying it upon herself.
“Oh! if I had only not been so quick. Oh! if I had governed my tongue—and I have been warned so many times—Lillie would not have gone, I’m sure; she nearly always does what she is told. May-be she will be drowned. I will run and coax her to come back. I could never hold up my head again.”