Mrs. Blake was angry, very angry indeed, but too well bred to show her annoyance before her visitor. She changed the subject with ready tact, and made a most fascinating hostess; while Winnie sat in dead silence, with a great scowl disfiguring her pretty face, and Dick danced his displeasure on the door-mat.
After a short time Ada rose to leave, and holding out a daintily-gloved hand to her sullen companion, said sweetly, "Good-bye, Winnie. I trust you will soon be better; and if I can possibly find leisure for another visit, rest assured I shall drop in on you some day soon."
"Pray, don't," replied Winnie, wilfully disregarding her step-mother's look of heavy displeasure. "Your visit has not afforded me such a vast amount of pleasure that I could wish its repetition at an early date. We never were friends, Ada" (with ungoverned passion), "never so long as I can remember. You hate me, and I—I detest you; why, then, will you persist in assuming a friendship that has no foundation?"
Dick's war-dance continued with greater vigour at this point, while Mrs. Blake in haughtiest tones said to Winnie, "How dare you insult Miss Irvine in this manner? Apologize at once, I command you."
Ada's face, as she turned it towards her hostess, wore a sweet, patient look, with just the tiniest flicker of pain about the curves of the perfect lips. "Please, do not blame Winnie too severely, Mrs. Blake," she pleaded mildly; "her words are to some extent true, but I—" and the lids drooped slowly over the lovely eyes, while a faint flush tinged the delicate cheeks—"I was trying to turn over a new leaf and gain Winnie's love."
"My eye, what a cram!" muttered Dick from behind the door. "Oh, but she acts the hypocrite capitally. Now then for Win's happy reply. It will be both sweet and original, I prophesy, for the little monkey is bristling all over like an insulted hedgehog. Here goes!" and the boy's ear was once more applied cautiously to the keyhole.
Winnie had risen by this time, and was confronting her adversary with a look almost capable of annihilating a less daring foe than Ada Irvine. Quite undaunted by the fear of future punishment, and recognizing only the great wrong this girl was doing her, she said, "I think you are a female Judas, Ada, and your true character will come to light some day. I know—" but Winnie got frightened at the awful look in Mrs. Blake's eyes, and stopped short, while Ada took refuge in tears.
"Come away, my dear," said her hostess, leading her gently from the room; "Winnie is not herself today. When the child is in a passion her language is uncontrollable; but I shall see she sends you a proper apology for her rudeness."
Dick heard no more, having to slip away at that moment and hide behind one of the statues in the passage during the exit of his step-mother with the weeping Niobe; but when the sound of their footsteps had died away in the distance, he rushed into the oak parlour, and seizing Winnie round the waist, treated her to several convulsive hugs and various exclamations of supreme delight.
"Well, old girl, you did the thing first-rate," he panted, throwing himself into a chair and rubbing his hands vigorously together. "You deserve to be commended, Win. Dear heart, as Aunt Debby says, what a tongue somebody has!"