“That is all right. And will you give your Aunt Jessie a kiss?”
Nancy flung her arms round Mrs. Richmond’s neck.
“How much I love you! How very, very good you are to me?” she said.
“What is it you specially want to say to me, Nancy?”
“It is about Augusta,” said the child. “I think perhaps I made too much fuss this morning. I know Augusta was—— I mean that it sounded cruel, but—— I don’t know how to express it. If you would not mind, Aunt Jessie, just quite forgiving her.”
“What do you mean by quite forgiving her, little woman?”
“She is in great trouble. She spoke to me about it. We are good friends now, she and I. She spoke to me, and I told her I would come and plead for her. If, Aunt Jessie, you would quite forgive her!”
“Well, dear child, I have quite forgiven her; we will let bygones be bygones.”
“If that is the case, you won’t give her a bad mark in the orderly-book?”
A look of great surprise came over Mrs. Richmond’s face when Nancy said this. She rose and said hurriedly: