Blue Bonnet’s cheeks were crimson. “But I said I was not going, Aunt Lucinda.”
Miss Clyde rose. “I have told you what I wish you to do, Elizabeth; we will not discuss the matter further.” She left the room to give her directions to Delia.
And Blue Bonnet, not wishing, in her present mood, to be left alone with her grandmother, pushed her chair back from the table and ran hastily upstairs to her room.
She would not go to church! If Aunt Lucinda had asked—Aunt Lucinda must learn, once for all, that she was not a child to be ordered to do things.
Blue Bonnet set about doing up her room, doing it with a thoroughness not born, in this instance, from the best of motives. In any case, there was not time for both; and it was Aunt Lucinda’s own teaching that the duty nearest at hand must be done first.
“Has Elizabeth come down, Mother?” Miss Lucinda asked some time later, coming out to the veranda where her mother sat waiting, ready for church.
“Not yet,” Mrs. Clyde answered.
Miss Clyde turned to Delia, who happened to be crossing the hall. “Please tell Miss Elizabeth that we are waiting for her.”
Delia was soon back. “Miss Elizabeth says she isn’t going to church this morning, ma’am.”
Miss Clyde finished buttoning her gloves, and opened her parasol. “I am ready, Mother,” she said.