"Therefore you must be quite well aware, without my having to reiterate it to you, that this kind of thing cannot be allowed to go on."
"I do no harm," said Mary Anne, knowing well to what the words tended.
"Harm or no harm, it cannot go on; it shall not. Now, which will you do--go to school again, or have a governess?"
"I don't want either," she answered, with a pout of her decisive lips.
"Or would you like--it is the one other alternative--a lady to come here as your friend and companion?"
"Frankly speaking, papa, I don't see what the difference would be between a companion and a governess. Of course, of the two I'd rather have a companion. To school I will not go. Lady Ellis was talking to me of this. I think she was fishing to be the companion herself."
"Fishing!" echoed the justice.
"Well, I do."
"Would you like her?"
"Not at all, papa."