"'Cause I was afraid she was 'specting me to do what mamma did not want me to do."
"But if mamma had said you were not to play much, would you have been in such a hurry to tell Mrs. Ashton?" asked Fanny.
"You need not ask that, after the doughnut," said Kate, before Bessie could speak.
"Are you always so particular about doing as your mamma wishes, whether she knows it or not?" said the young lady who had offered the doughnut.
"Why, yes," said Bessie. "Are not you?"
At this, two or three of the girls laughed; and Kate Maynard said, "That shoe pinches: does it not, Mary? No indeed, Bessie: filial obedience and respect are not among Mary Morton's weaknesses."
"Do you mean she don't mind her mother?" asked Bessie, looking up with astonishment at Miss Morton, who coloured, tossed her head, and then laughed.
"Something that way," answered Kate.
"I am no worse than others," said Mary.
"I don't know," said Kate. "I do not set myself up for being very good, and I own I am not always as considerate and dutiful to my mother as I should be: but I do not think my conscience would give me much rest if I spoke to her the way you do to your mother, Mary."