"This is too much!" gasped the General. "Leave the room, sir!"
May obeyed, but no sooner was the threshold crossed than her courageous mien changed to one of sadness, and she walked away with bent head and eyes that would fill with tears in spite of every effort to restrain them.
"What is the matter?" said Sarah, coming upon May suddenly and noticing her tears.
May hid her face in Sarah's spotless lawn apron and cried quietly.
"I don't mean to cry—but I can't help it," she sobbed.
"Cry if you want to; there's no law against it," Sarah said, with characteristic crispness of speech, which somehow did not sound unsympathetic.
Sarah saw the General coming, but of course May did not, for her head was still buried in Sarah's apron, and it was a surprise when he cried with terrible scorn,—
"You have been crying, sir!"
"I have been crying," May admitted, from the folds of the apron, "but I haven't told Miss Sarah how disagreeable you were to me."