"I am not going to scold you, really," says Margaret, smiling; "but consider, dear child! To begin with——"
"Oh, this is worse than I thought," interrupts Tita, covering her face with her hands, and blinking at her through her fingers. "Is it going to be firstly, secondly, thirdly? Come to the thirdly at once."
"Do you know what you want?" says Margaret, who feels fonder of her every moment. "A good slap! I shall deliver it some day. But, seriously now, Tita, you ought to have considered your guests, at all events. If you had stayed in your room it would have been nothing—but——"
"But because I stayed in the open air it was _something!" _Tita bursts out laughing. "Oh, isn't it funny?" says she. "It would have been all right if I had had a bad headache. Either way they wouldn't have seen me at breakfast, and what it amounts to is, that they are very angry because I hadn't a bad headache."
"No one is angry at all."
"No one?"
"Except Maurice, and surely he has some right on his side. You know your conduct was a little—just a little—er——"
"Rude," says Tita, helping her out. "Well, I know that, and I am sorry to my heart's core, Margaret, if I was rude—to you!"
The climax is very sweet. Margaret tells herself that Tita is too much for her. The girl by this time has her arms round her neck.
"Don't mind me," says Margaret, holding the little form closely to her. "Think of yourself, my dearest. As if I should misunderstand you! But you should study conventionality a little; you should——"