The letter had fallen beneath the table. Alice made a movement towards it, but, overcome by mad rage, Cecilia caught it up and threw it into the fire. Alice rescued her letter, and then, her face full of stern indignation, she said:
'I think, Cecilia, you had better leave my room, and before you come to see me again, I shall expect to receive a written apology for the outrageous way you have behaved.'
In a few days came a humble and penitent letter; Cecilia returned, her eyes full of tears, and begged to be forgiven; the girls resumed their friendship, but both were conscious that it was neither so bright nor so communicative as in the olden days.
XXII
'Something has happened to my learned daughter,' said Mr. Barton, and he continued his thumb-nail sketch on the tablecloth. 'What is it?' he added indolently.
Alice passed the cheque and the memorandum across the table. 'Three pounds for three articles contributed to the —— during the month of April.'
'You don't mean to say, Alice, you got three pounds for your writing?' said Mrs. Barton.
'Yes, mother, I have, and I hope to make ten pounds next month. Mr.
Harding says he can get me lots of work.'
'So my lady then, with all her shy ways, knows how to make use of a man as well as any of us.'
Mrs. Barton did not willingly wound. She saw life from the point of view of making use of men, that was all; and when Alice walked out of the room, Mrs. Barton felt sorry for what she had said, and she would have gone to comfort her daughter if Olive had not, at that moment, stood in imminent need of comfort.