"I'm just beginning to," replied Peg bitterly.
"I am ashamed of you! You have disgraced us all!" cried Mrs. Chichester.
"Have I?" screamed Peg fiercely. "Well, if I HAVE then I am goin' back to some one who'd never be ashamed o' me, no matter what I did. Here I've never been allowed to do one thing I've wanted to. He lets me do EVERYTHING I want because he loves and trusts me an' whatever I do is RIGHT because I do it. I've disgraced ye, have I? Well, none of you can tell me the truth. I'm goin' back to me father."
"Go back to your father and glad we are to be rid of you!" answered Mrs. Chichester furiously.
"I am goin' back to him—"
Before she could say anything further, Ethel suddenly rose unsteadily and cried out:
"Wait, mother! She mustn't go. We have all been grossly unfair to her. It is I should go. To-night she saved me from—she saved me from—" suddenly Ethel reached the breaking-point; she slipped from Peg's arms to the chair and on to the floor and lay quite still.
Peg knelt down beside her:
"She's fainted. Stand back—give her air—get some water, some smelling-salts—quick—don't stand there lookin' at her: do somethin'!"
Peg loosened Ethel's dress and talked to her all the while, and Jerry and Alaric hurried out in different directions in quest of restoratives.