“I’m not going to talk to you. Your punishment is that nobody will talk to you for the rest of the day.”
“All right”—cheerfully.
“You’ll just lie here, all alone.”
“Oh, no,” she corrected him, “my playmates will be here, and God’s always around.”
“No playmates shall come in here,” he reiterated.
“But you can’t keep Dorothy and Reginald out, because they’re just pretend,” she defied him.
Wally knew he was beaten. He had never felt so futile in his life. She sat there with her straight little back, her wise eyes fixed on him, and he wished he were well out of the room.
“I hope you will lie here and think of what I have said to you,” he remarked sonorously. “I’m surprised at you, Isabelle,” he added sternly.
He rose and hurried toward the door.
“Good night, Wally,” she said pleasantly, and smiled at him.