“Yes, ma’am.”
“You do know! You are not ashamed to acknowledge it! Then may I inquire why you have deliberately chosen to do what you know to be wrong?”
Cornelia drew up a comfortable chair and seated herself by her aunt’s side, arranging her draperies with a succession of little pulls and pats. She rested one elbow on the arm of the chair, and leant her chin upon the upraised palm, a pretty, thoughtful-looking pose into which she fell naturally in leisure moments. The cat blinked at her through sleepy eyelids, then, deliberately ignoring the devotion of years, rose from its place by its mistress’s side, stretched itself with feline grace, and stalked majestically across the rug to nestle against the soft white skirts. Miss Briskett eyed its desertion over the brim of her spectacles. Poor lady! her measure of love received was so small, that she felt a distinct pang at the defection.
“What explanation have you to offer, Cornelia? You knew that you would annoy me?”
“Why, yes, of course. That’s all there was to it! It didn’t thrill me a mite to walk over a strip of lawn, without figging up in my best duds. I can do that any day I want at home, but I just had to raise Cain somehow! It’s the only way I ken pull round again when I get mad. I just go right away and do the ugliest thing I can strike, and then I feel all soothed, and calmed down. You try it yourself, next time; it beats knitting stockings all into fits! I’m just as sweet as candy now, so you’ve got to forgive me, and be friends. I’m sorry I acted so mean, but you were pretty nippy yourself, weren’t you now? I guess we’ve both been used to take our own way without any fluster, and it comes pretty hard to be crossed, but now we’ve had our fling, we’ve got to kiss and make friends. That’s so; isn’t it?”
She bent forward, pouting her lips to receive the token of peace, but Miss Briskett drew back in chilly dignity. For the past hour she had nourished a smouldering resentment, feeling herself the most ill-used of womenkind, and this calm inclusion of herself in the list of wrong-doers did not tend to pour oil on the troubled waters. For Cornelia to acknowledge her deliberate intention to offend, and in the same breath to offer a kiss of reconciliation, showed a reprehensible lack of proper feeling. Miss Briskett was a woman of high principles, and made a point of forgiving her enemies—slowly! As a preliminary process she demanded an abject apology, and a period of waiting, during which the culprit was expected to be devoured by remorse and anxiety. Then, bending from an impeccable height, she vouchsafed a mitigated pardon. “I forgive you, but I can never forget!” Some such absolution she would have been ready to bestow upon a tearful and dejected Cornelia, but the pink and white complaisance of the uplifted face steeled her heart afresh. She shrank back in her chair, ignoring the outstretched hand.
“Excuse me, my dear, but I do not care to kiss a person who has just acknowledged that she has deliberately tried to annoy me. I was naturally displeased at your rejection of my friend’s hospitality, but it is exceedingly impertinent to compare my behaviour to your own. You seem to forget that I am your hostess, and nearly three times your age.”
“Then you ought to be three times better, oughtn’t you?” retorted Cornelia, blandly. “Well, I’ll own up that I’m sorry about Miss Nesbitt, and I’ll be pleased to take tea with her as often as she likes, but I regret that a previous engagement prevents my going Thursday also. You tell the old lady from me that I’m real sorry to miss the treat, and if it will ease her mind any to know that I don’t think England’s a patch on America, she’s welcome to the information. Elma Ramsden and I have fixed up a drive to see the country, Thursday afternoon.”
Miss Briskett’s knitting-needles clinked irritably together. A half concession was little better than none, and the frivolous tone of Cornelia’s remarks spoke of something far removed from the ideal repentance. Apart from the question of the tea-party, she disapproved of two young girls driving about the country unattended, but her courage shrank from the thought of another battle. She dropped her eyelids, and replied icily—
“As you have already made your arrangements it is useless for me to offer any objections. You are evidently determined to take your own way in spite of anything I can say. I can only trust that no harm may come of the experiment.”