“It is always the same whenever Mr. Black comes,” continued Agnes. “I can remember how we used to dread the very sight of him or your mother entering the gates. I suppose I ought not to say it, Bessie, as she is your mother; but she always made things worse for us here, at least we thought she did.”
“Don’t let the fact of her being my mother prevent your expressing your opinions,” said Bessie, who, seated on the floor in the nursery, was engaged in striving to comfort Lally. Most sincerely she hoped and believed Heather was, at that moment, closeted with Mrs. Piggott; but Heather happened to be in an adjoining room, and, hearing the sound of Lally’s exceeding bitter grief, came in to see what could be the cause of it.
“Why, what is the matter with my pet?” she asked.
Agnes looked at Bessie, who promptly answered, “Lally has been very naughty.”
“No, Lally not been naughty,” broke in the child, stretching out her arms towards her mother. “Lally only said that fat man was like Doe Cole—and pa hit her—pa did;” and Lally buried her head in her mother’s breast, and wept abundantly.
“Arthur did not mean to hurt her,” Agnes explained.
“And Lally was very naughty, for she said Joe Cole was a fool,” added Bessie; but, unheeding both the girls’ statements, Heather passed from the room, carrying Lally with her, and appeared no more until supper time, when Bessie noticed that she had been crying.
“I wish you would keep that child of yours out of the way of strangers till she has learnt how to behave herself,” Arthur remarked from the foot of the table, with his customary tact and consideration.
“She shall not annoy any one again,” said Heather, who had intended to take a private opportunity of apologising to Mr. Black for Lally’s seeming rudeness.
“Oh! she did not annoy me, ma’am,” returned that gentleman. “Considered it rather a compliment than otherwise, I assure you. You know the saying, I dare say, that it takes a wise man to act the fool; and I rather think any one who tried to get the better of me would find he had no fool to deal with, Mrs. Dudley.”