Eleanor stood self-conscious of her mistakes, and Polly sent her one sorry look and then walked into her room. Eleanor did not dare follow as she was too awed by her friend's honest speech. And she admired Polly all the more for daring to tell her the unvarnished truth about her proclivity to prevaricate. "It always was my weak spot," grumbled Eleanor to herself, as she walked slowly to the kitchen to see if Sary was there to keep her company. But the big cool kitchen was empty, so the girl sat down in the wooden chair and thought. [Illustration: "WHO ASKED YOU TO HELP ME OUT?" DEMANDED POLLY. _Polly and Eleanor_ _Page 257_] "If I had had a different training maybe I wouldn't be so ready to lie," murmured Eleanor. Then, suddenly sneering at herself she added: "Poor fish! Can't even accept what you know is a fact without trying to blame it on some one else. You've scorned Bob for being such a fool, but here you are, ten times worse, because you have wits enough yet you pervert the use of them. Eleanor Maynard, I just feel as if I wanted to give you the biggest hiding you ever heard of!" As she knew of no way in which to inflict this punishment upon herself, she cried instead. From a prolonged sniffle that caused her to wipe her eyes on her dimity sleeves, she began to weep freely. And finally, heart-broken sobs shook her slender frame. By this time her eyes and nose were rivers of salt-water and the poor girl had no handkerchief. Just when she felt compelled to turn up her skirt to use the ruffle of her white petticoat, Anne came in. "Why, Nolla! What has happened?" "Oo-h, Anne--I lost my handkerchief!" "Is that all, darling! Here use mine--It's clean. But don't cry over a trifle like that. It is sure to be somewhere about the place." Before Anne could dry the flooded eyes and hold the bit of white linen at Eleanor's nose, the girl broke into a merry laugh--so close were tears and laughter in Eleanor's makeup. "Oh, oh--Anne! I didn't mean _that_ that was what made me _cry_! But I am so disgusted with myself--that is why I am weeping. If some one would only whip me soundly, I would feel _so_ much better!" "Oh, I see! you're crying because you are so selfish, eh?" Eleanor looked up astonished. "Selfish--no, I want to be thrashed, you know." "And because you cannot get what you think you want, you sit out here and weep! Oh come, Nolla! come out on the terrace and let your Dad see how happy you are!" The very illumination that came with Anne's unexpected words choked the sobs in Eleanor's throat, and she meekly followed Anne to the pump where cold water was dashed upon her red eye-lids. As she dried her face on a clean towel that hung back of the door, she thought: "Yes, sir! Even in howling for a licking I was fooling myself into believing I was doing the right thing! Oh, Nolla, Nolla! how much you have to change your old ways of thinking and talking before you can feel as honest and wise as Anne Stewart or Polly!" CHAPTER XV