Captain Vallery walked up and down on the lawn by himself for some time, considering how he should treat his son, and he began to reflect whether after all his system of allowing a boy to have his own way was likely to prove the best. CHAPTER THREE. CAN YOU FORGIVE IT? Next morning, when Norman came down to breakfast, his papa, instead of playfully addressing him, turned away his head and took no notice of his presence. Norman ate his breakfast in silence. Fanny looked very sad, she felt that her brother deserved punishment, and that it might teach him the necessity of speaking the truth. Still she could not bear the thoughts of her young brother being beaten, and from what her papa had said she believed he intended to do so. Her grandmamma had quoted the proverb of Solomon, "He that spareth the rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes." "You are right, Mrs Leslie," her papa had remarked, "I acknowledge the wisdom of the great king, and must follow his advice." After breakfast Fanny's governess arrived, and Captain Vallery took his son up into his room. What happened there Norman did not divulge, but he looked very crestfallen during the rest of the morning. When he met Fanny afterwards he told her that he did not intend to tell any more lies. "I hope you will not do so," said Fanny, "remember that God hates them even more than papa or anybody else can do, and He knows when you tell an untruth, although no human being may find it out." After dinner Norman appeared to have recovered his spirits, and Fanny took him out to play battledore and shuttlecock. They were beginning to get tired, when Mrs Leslie and their mamma came out. "Come and walk with us, my dears," said Mrs Leslie, "I want to show your mamma the pretty garden you have cultivated so nicely, Fanny." Fanny would thankfully have prevented them from seeing her garden, for she knew that the way Norman had treated it would be discovered. Still she could not think how to avoid going, and she could only hope that the gardener had put it to rights, as he had promised to do. Mrs Leslie, wishing to gain her grandson's confidence, called to him, and taking his hand, led him on talking to him kindly; Fanny and her mamma followed at a little distance. Mrs Vallery interested Fanny by giving her accounts of India, but she was so anxious about her garden and the vexation her granny would feel at seeing it destroyed, that she could not listen as attentively as she otherwise would have done. She saw that Norman was walking on very unwillingly, and from time to time making an effort to escape, but his grandmamma had no intention of letting him go. At length Mrs Leslie and Norman reached Fanny's garden. "Why, my dear, what changes you have made!" she exclaimed, "and I see you have dug up nearly half of it."