She then sat and waited for events. They were not long in coming. Leucha's anger was something prodigious. She forgot all about the really frightful smack she had given Hollyhock on her rosy cheek. She thought of nothing but her own indignities—the indignities committed against an earl's daughter by a common Scots girl.
She found Mrs Macintyre in her study. The good lady looked up in amazement when the girl burst in.
'My dear Leucha, whatever is the matter? Why are you not in bed?'
'In bed, Mrs Macintyre! Is it likely that I should be in bed when a nasty, mean Scotch girl puts a horrid, common cat into it, and also a great saucer of cream, which the cat spilt, injuring my favourite edition of the works of Charles Dickens, which was given me by my father on my last birthday? Will you kindly, Mrs Macintyre, expel that girl in the morning?'
'Oh, my dear, I suppose you are alluding to Hollyhock?'
'I 'm not; I 'm alluding to ugly Jack Lennox, beneath me in station, beneath me in manners, beneath me in everything!'
'Well, as to that,' said Mrs Macintyre, 'I'm sorry you are annoyed, Leucha, but another girl would take the matter as a good joke, and win the friendship of Hollyhock by overlooking the whole affair.'
'I'm not that sort. I'm the daughter of the Earl of Crossways, and she—she is nothing but a mischievous cad. She 'll ruin your school, of course, Mrs Macintyre.'
'I don't think so, my dear. I'm delighted to have her. As she has annoyed you, and you wish it, I must punish her, of course; but whatever I do, I shall destroy neither her beauty nor her high rank.'
'Her high rank, forsooth! What next?'