"Oh, Lu, don't!" cried Grace, in terror; "don't try to fight him. Don't you remember how he 'most made Grandma Elsie die when she was a little girl, 'cause she wouldn't do what he told her to?"
Lulu nodded. "But I'm another kind of girl," she said; "and I'm not his child, so I think he wouldn't dare be quite so cruel to me."
"How brave you are, Lulu!" Grace exclaimed in admiration. "But, oh, I am so sorry for you! I'd be frightened 'most to death, I think; frightened to think of going back to that signor, and dreadfully afraid to refuse if Grandpa Dinsmore said I must."
"Yes, you poor little thing! but I'm not so timid, you know. Grandpa
Dinsmore can't frighten me into breaking my word."
"But, you know, Lu," said Max, coming in at that moment, "that papa has ordered us to obey Grandpa Dinsmore, and if we refuse we are disobeying our father too."
"I am sure papa never thought he would want me to go on taking lessons of a man that struck me," cried Lulu, indignantly. "Besides, I've said I won't, and nothing on earth shall make me break my word."
"I wish papa was here," sighed Max, looking sorely troubled.
"So do I," responded Lulu. "I'm sure he wouldn't make me go back to that hateful old Signor Foresti."
That evening Max, Lulu, Rosie, and Evelyn were in the schoolroom at Viamede, preparing their lessons for the morrow, when a servant came up with a message for Lulu; she was wanted in the library.
Flushing hotly, and looking a good deal disturbed, Lulu pushed aside her books and rose to obey the summons.