"Oh, but I'm glad he got his deserts for once!"
"I think he'll be apt to keep his hands—or rather his pointer—off you in the future."
"Off other people too," added a timid little girl who had felt its sting more than once. "I was rejoiced to hear the professor say he didn't allow such punishment for girls. I'll let the signor know, and that I'll inform on him if ever he touches me with his pointer again."
"So should I," said Nettie; "I wouldn't put up with it. But he has never hurt you as he has Lulu. See! every one of her fingers is blistered!"
"Yes; it must have hurt terribly. I don't wonder she struck him back."
"Indeed, it wasn't the pain I cared so much for," returned Lulu, scorning the implication; "it was the insult."
"Young ladies," said a severely reproving voice behind them, "why are you tarrying here? It is high time you were all on your homeward way. Miss Rosie Travilla, Miss Evelyn Leland, and Miss Raymond, the Viamede carriage has been in waiting for the last half-hour."
The speaker was no other than Mrs. Manton, who had entered unperceived by them in their excitement.
No one replied to her rebuke, but there was a sudden scurrying into the cloak-room, followed by a hasty donning of hats and wraps.
Rosie brought up the rear, muttering, as she drew out and glanced at a pretty little watch, "Hardly so long as that, I am sure!"