Daisy sprang to the front. "If you dare!" she said in her calm voice, that voice which she had won through pain and victory. "If you really wish to amuse yourself in that disgraceful way, I for one give you up. I did not intend to say anything to Maureen, for I would not hurt her feelings for the world; but I may as well tell you quite plainly and simply that I think, when you begin to take off our relations and friends and your old home, your audience will be nil, for not another girl in the school will listen to you."
"There, take that for your impudence!" said Henrietta, and she tried to slap Daisy, who immediately walked away. Henny burst into shrieks of crying, clasped her arms around Maureen, and said, "Oh, Maureen, acushla machree, what have I done? Oh, indeed, indeed, I didn't mean it, and you know well that I love you better than anyone in the world except little lost and come again Daisy. It's only the fun in me that must bubble to the surface."
"Ah, poor Henny," said Maureen in her gentle voice. "I did so hope that you would never behave like this again. You must come immediately to Daisy and beg her pardon."
"You won't catch me begging pardons."
"Henrietta, thou art wanted," said Dinah, who just then appeared on the scene.
She took the excited girl by the hand and led her into the house, then up to the Room of Useful Employment, where Henny had spent so many wretched hours; here a bright fire was burning, and the whole room looked as neat as the proverbial new pin. Dinah dragged the punishment chair into view.
"Sit thee down, maiden," she said.
"I will not! I will not! I have just been having a lark with the girls, and——"
"Thee didst try to slap thy sister on the cheek. I saw it all. It is ordained that thou sit in the Punishment Chair for the remainder of to-day, and to-night thou dost lie in a little bed by my side."
"What! What! May I not go to Maureen?"