"You can open it and read it, or give it back to him, or put it in the fire," Margaret answered. "It's such a long way for you to have come; won't you have some tea, Hannah?"
"I don't want any tea. If that's where you sleep," she added, nodding towards the other room, "you had better go and pack up your things at once. We shall have time to catch the 6.50; I don't mind taking a cab to the station."
"It's no use; I'm not coming," Margaret, answered, firmly.
"And what do you think you are going to do in London?" asked Hannah, beginning to lose her temper again. "And what sort of a house is this you're in, I should like to know, with an actress lodging down-stairs? I've found that out already."
"I hope I shall be an actress, too, soon."
"You!" Hannah almost screamed. "You that have no religion now want to be an actress; where do you think it will all end?"
"I am not going to discuss it with you," Margaret answered, loftily, "it was very kind of you to come, but if you won't have any tea you had better go home again. I have written to father, and I know that my mother will trust me. I have not got any of the religion that makes you narrow and hard; you have made me afraid of even thinking about that; and I'm going to be an actress. But I won't do anything wrong—"
"We are all weak—" Hannah began, in consternation.
"I will be as strong as I can," Margaret cried, passionately. "Go back, Hannah, and think things over. If there can be peace at home, and Mr. Garratt is not a bone of contention between us—I don't want him, you understand—presently I will come home again."