[CHAPTER XVI]
SELF-WILL AND SORROW
BERYL sat down to her lessons with a frown upon her brow. If she was at all ashamed of having provoked such a reproof from her governess, pride kept her from manifesting the least contrition.
Miss Burton soon knew that Beryl could be as naughty and refractory as any child she had ever had to control. Everything went wrong that morning. Either Beryl had prepared her lessons very carelessly, or her recent annoyance had driven out of her mind what she had learned. She stammered and hesitated, made the most stupid blunders, and called forth frequent expressions of astonishment from her governess.
Beryl's temper did not improve under these humiliations. Since she found it impossible to display striking intelligence in the course of this morning's study, she resolved to aim at the other extreme and show striking stupidity. If Miss Burton were inclined to find fault, occasion should not be lacking. So Beryl hardened herself into a state of sulky obstinacy, purposely misunderstood what was said to her, found difficulties in the easiest of sums, and made blots and smudges in her writing at the rate of one a minute.
Miss Burton tried to be patient with the child, hoping that she would soon recover her temper and see the absurdity of her conduct. But as Beryl's blunders showed more and more plainly that they were made by design, the governess felt her own anger being kindled. Fearing that an outburst of indignation might make matters worse, she suddenly surprised Beryl by refusing to teach her any more that morning.
For the rest of schooltime, Beryl sat idle in a corner of the room, looking strangely unlike herself, with the sulky, stubborn look which had settled on her face.
"Beryl," said Miss Burton, when Coral was putting away her books, "I was sorry to find fault with you when I came into the schoolroom this morning, but if you had been a wise girl, you would have resolved that it should not happen again, and have tried, by being good and industrious, to make me forget my annoyance with you. But as you have chosen to waste the whole morning by giving way to ill-temper and naughtiness, I feel that I must increase your punishment. I shall double the lesson I intended giving you, and you must stay in this room by yourself for a whole hour. It grieves me to treat you thus, for I had hoped we might have got on together without punishments and penalties."
Miss Burton looked in vain for any sign of softening on Beryl's part. Yet, in truth, it was all the child could do to keep her composure. No sooner did she hear Miss Burton close the door, and know that she was alone, than she burst into passionate tears. But they were not tears of penitence. Pride still ruled her spirit, and she angrily resented her governess's treatment of her. Beryl had never before experienced punishment, and, like a colt first made to feel the bit, she chafed and fretted, giving herself far more pain than she would have felt had she quietly submitted to control.
In her indignant, defiant mood, Beryl was of two minds about learning the lesson Miss Burton had set her. It was by no means a difficult task, and she might soon have mastered it, had she chosen to do so. But she felt strongly disinclined to the effort, as she sat with the book closed over her fingers, swinging her feet to and fro, an action soothing to her in her present state of mind. She was gradually growing calmer and more rational, when the door opened and Lucy appeared. She came, duster in hand, to set the room tidy, as her custom was when lessons were over.