'Come, Leucha,' she said, 'you have got something to say to your companions. You are wearing a rag on your hand. Take it off.'
'It hurts,' said Leucha, meaning her hand, for she clung to the rag as a sort of flag of protection.
'Take the rag off, and we 'll see for ourselves how much it hurts,' said Mrs Macintyre.
The girls and teachers all stood wondering by. The only one who felt sorry was Hollyhock. The rag was removed, and Mrs Macintyre, gazing keenly at the scratch, said in a disdainful voice, 'I never heard such a fuss about nothing at all. Now, then, you will have the goodness to tell the school in as few words as possible how you got that scratch on your hand, and how Hollyhock got her poor face so swollen.'
'It was the cat,' muttered Leucha.
'The cat! What cat?' echoed from end to end of the long room.
'Leucha, hold your head up and tell your story. If you don't tell it at once, without any more shirking, I shall have you locked up for the day in your room.'
So Leucha, dreading this beyond anything—for a day in her room at the present moment might mean anything—was forced to tell the story of the previous night's adventure. She did tell it with all the venom of which she was capable. She told it with her pale-blue eyes gleaming spitefully. She was forced to go to the very bottom of the affair.
'It was a silly trick, girls,' said Mrs Macintyre when the tale had come to an end, 'and Hollyhock suffered, because the daughter of the Earl of Crossways very nearly broke her jaw. Well, I 'm here to do my duty. Leucha has had to explain. Another girl would have taken what occurred simply as a joke and made nothing of it; but I grieve to say that such is not Leucha Villiers's way; and as Hollyhock did do wrong, and as Leucha particularly wishes it, I am forced to punish her by not allowing her to go home on Saturday. It seems a pity; but justice is justice, and Hollyhock is the first to think that herself.'
'I am,' replied Hollyhock.