'Oh, Betty, I've done it!' and Angel sank down on the stairs, and hid her face on her sister's shoulder.
'Have you whipped him?' asked Betty.
'Yes, I said I would, and I had to; you know what Martha said—he must be able to depend on what we said. I whipped him and put him to bed.'
'Poor Angel, poor dear, how your hands are shaking. You couldn't have hit him very hard.'
'I don't know; it seemed to me as if I did, and he is so little.'
'Did he cry?' asked Betty.
'Oh no, but he's so brave he wouldn't, not even if I really hurt him dreadfully.'
The idea of slender, gentle Angelica doing bodily violence to any one would have been amusing if the sisters had not been too serious to see it.
'Penny met us on the stairs,' Angel went on, 'and she wanted to pet him, and I wouldn't let her. I think she thought me very cruel, and if she knew I'd whipped him——'
'Well, we ar'n't bringing up Godfrey to please Penny,' said Betty decidedly, 'and really and truly, Angel dear, I expect you hurt yourself more than you did him. Come down into the parlour, your fingers are as cold as ice. I've got something to tell you, too.'