'Will she stay long, daddy?' asked Gentian.
'I sincerely trust not,' said the Honourable George Lennox.
'Then that's all right. We don't mind very much now,' said Hollyhock; and she began to dance wildly about the room.
'You will have to behave, Hollyhock,' said her father with a smile.
Hollyhock drew herself up to her full height; her black eyes gleamed and glowed; her lips parted in a funny, yet naughty, smile. Her hair seemed so full of electricity that it stood out in wonderful rays all over her head.
'And why should I behave well now, daddy mine?' she asked.
'Oh, because of Aunt Agnes.'
'Catch me,' said Hollyhock.—'Who is with me in this matter, girls? Are you, Delphy? Are you, Jasmine? Are you, Gentian? Are you, Rose of the Garden?'
'We 're every one of us with you,' exclaimed Jasmine, snuggling up to her father as she spoke. 'Daddy,' she continued, 'I want to ask you a question. Even if it hurts you, I must ask it. Was our own, ownest mother the least like Aunt Agnes?'
'As the east is from the west, so were those two sisters apart,' he said.