"Did you not hear me say," exclaimed Mrs. Fox-Cordery, frowning, "that he is shocked at your behavior? Is that not hurting him?"
"Not that I can see, mother," replied Charlotte. "I cannot help it if he looks upon what I have done in a wrong light."
"In a wrong light, Miss Impertinence!" cried Mrs. Fox-Cordery. "The view your brother takes of a thing is always right."
"If you will give me my clothes," said Charlotte, with pardonable evasion, "I will get up."
"You will get up when I order you, and not before. I am speaking to you by your brother's instructions, and we will have this matter out, once and for all."
Charlotte lay silent. It did not appear to her that she had anything to defend, and she instinctively felt that the most prudent course was to say as little as possible.
"Will you tell your brother that you are sorry for what you have done, or shall I?"
"I am not sorry, mother."
Mrs. Fox-Cordery was rather staggered by this reply.
"There is an absence of moral perception in you," she said severely, "that will lead to bad results. If you were not my daughter I should call in a policeman."