“Yes,” said she. “She is your friend, you know; and I went to ask her not to let her father turn you off.”
“And what came of it?”
“She cried,” said Sophie. “She was terribly unhappy. She said that she knew that you were a good boy; and that she would never rest until her father had taken you back.”
“You don't mean it!” cried Samuel in amazement.
“Yes, Samuel; but then her mother came.”
“Oh! And what then?”
“She scolded me! She was very angry with me. She said I had no right to fill the child's mind with falsehoods about her uncle. And she wouldn't listen to me—she turned me out of the house.”
There was a long silence. “I don't think I did any good at all,” said Sophie in a low voice. “We are going to have to do it all by ourselves.”