Fanny smiled. “Betty, dear,” she said, “don’t be unreasonable. You can’t dislike me as much as you imagine you do! Why should you go on in this fashion?” As Fanny spoke she knelt down by the guard, put a match to the already well-laid fire, and soon it was crackling and roaring up the chimney.
“You are here,” said Fanny, “because you broke a rule. We all know, every one in the school knows, Mrs. Haddo is not angry, but she insists on punishment. She never, never excuses a girl who breaks a rule. The girl must pay the penalty; afterwards, things are as they were before. It is amazing what an effect this has in keeping us all up to the mark and in order. Now, Betty—Bettina, dear—come and sit by the fire and let me hold your hands. Why, they’re as blue as possible; you are quite frozen, you poor child!”
Fanny spoke in quite a nice, soothing voice. She had the same look on her face which she had worn that evening in Margaret Grant’s bedroom. She seemed really desirous to be nice to Betty. She knew that Betty was easily influenced by kindness; this was the case, for even Fanny did not seem quite so objectionable when she smiled sweetly and spoke gently. She now drew two chairs forward, one for herself and one for Betty. Betty had been intensely cold, and the pleasant glow of the fire was grateful. She sank into the chair which Fanny offered her with very much the air of being the proprietor of the room, and not Betty, and waited for her companion to speak. She did not notice that Fanny had placed her own chair so that the back was to the light, whereas Betty sat where the full light from the three big windows fell on her face.
“Well, now, I call this real comfy!” said Fanny. “They will send up your tea, you know, and you can have a book from the school library if you like. I should recommend ‘The Daisy Chain’ or ‘The Heir of Redclyffe.’”
“I don’t want any books, thanks,” said Betty.
“But don’t you love reading?”
“I can’t tell you. Perhaps I do, perhaps I don’t.”
“Betty, won’t you tell me anything?”
“Fanny, I have nothing to tell you.”
“Oh, Betty, with a face like yours—nothing!”