Alas, there was no help for it. Cynthia must confess. If only Jack had not been there!
She rose from the step where she had been sitting, and standing in front of her little grandaunt she spoke very rapidly.
"You are right, and so is Mrs. Parker. You weren't here, but I dressed up and went to see her. I pretended I was you. I found your other false—I mean your new hair. You left it in the drawer. I looked just like you, and we thought it would be such fun. I'm awfully sorry, Aunt Betsey, indeed I am. It wasn't such great fun, after all."
At first Miss Betsey was speechless. Then she rose in extreme wrath.
"CYNTHY FRANKLIN, IT IS MORE THAN TIME YOU HAD A MOTHER."
"Cynthy Franklin, it is more than time you had a mother. I never supposed you could be so—impertinent; yes, impertinent! Made yourself look like me, indeed, and going to my most intimate friend! Poor Mrs. Parker. There's no knowing what she might have said, thinking it was I. And I telling her to-day she was out of her mind, and various other things I'm distressed to think of. Why, Cynthy!"
"Oh, I'm so sorry," cried Cynthia, bursting into tears. "Do forgive me, Aunt Betsey."
"I am not ready to forgive you just yet, and whether I ever will or not remains to be proved. I am disappointed in you all. Edith going and shutting herself up when I come, because she doesn't want a step-mother, and you making fun of an aged aunt—not so very aged either. Why, when Silas hears this I just dread to think what he'll say. I am going home at once, Jack. You are the only well-behaved one among them. You may drive me to the train."
"Oh, Aunt Betsey, not to-day! Please don't go."