"I'm afraid it's about you."
"Oh, but I must speak to Mrs. Freeman. She really meant nothing wrong, dear child."
"She broke the rules in leaving the grounds without leave. I think it is for her disobedience that Mrs. Freeman is punishing her. She has shut her up in Miss Patience's room, and poor Biddy won't eat, and is in a dreadful state of mind. Marshall spoke to me about her after dinner, and asked me to go to her; but we had a committee meeting just then, and afterward I could not find Mrs. Freeman."
"Have you left the poor girl by herself all this time, Dolly?"
"I must own that I have. I will go and have a talk with her as soon as ever I leave you; not that I can do much good, she's such a queer kind of mixture of obstinacy and passion."
"But it does seem dreadful to leave her by herself all this time; just as if no one had a scrap of sympathy for her. Let us both go to her at once, Dolly. I want to thank her for being so brave."
"But Mrs. Freeman; we ought to ask her leave."
"Mrs. Freeman will be in her own sitting room at this time. Come along, Dolly, we have just a few minutes to spare before the gong sounds for tea."
Dorothy made no further objections, and she and Eva went downstairs side by side.
They knocked at Mrs. Freeman's sitting-room door. She was not in, but Miss Delicia was tidying books and papers on her davenport.