"No, I don't," said Iddo, sullenly.
"How disagreeable you are," they exclaimed, laughing, "we thought you were a very different kind of girl," and as they moved away Iddo heard one of them remark:
"How that girl has disimproved. She has such a sour expression on her face, which quite spoils her beauty, and she evidently cannot bear anyone being admired but herself."
"Did you hear that?" asked Jealousy. "I think the way they are treating you is quite disgraceful."
Had Belthiah seen her little daughter at that moment she would scarcely have recognized her. Her brow was puckered with vexation, and her eyes wore a remarkable likeness in their expression to that of the enemy by her side—they were moody and sullen.
"I think I shall go away," she murmured.
"No, don't go away," answered Jealousy, "show them that you don't care. Be cold and distant to them, it will teach them how to behave."
So, when some of her playmates came near her, Iddo looked at them so coldly and disagreeably that they turned back with a shrug of their shoulders, and warned their friends to have nothing to do with her, for she was quite impossible.
So poor Iddo was left severely alone, and began to repent that she had not listened to her mother's advice. The lovely flowers which had attracted her were all beginning to fade, and she made a sorry picture with her gloomy expression of face, and the faded flowers in her hair and on her dress. Then she rose, and began to try and find Aimee. Aimee surely would not desert her like the rest of the people, for she was her chosen friend. Where could she be? Iddo had been so full of chagrin at the behaviour of the others that she had not noticed that her friend had disappeared, and now looked about her anxiously.
Suddenly she caught sight of her in deep conversation with one whom Iddo recognized at once as being a pilgrim to the Radiant City. She was walking fully armed, and Iddo noticed that behind her trotted Madam Vanity, but that the pilgrim would have nothing to say to her. Other enemies were also doing what they could to annoy her, but she perpetually pulled out her sword and they fled. Aimee was walking by her side, looking up at her with admiration, and as Iddo neared them she heard her say: