"Now, Pa! I won't stand that common little thing being here any longer--no, I won't! Why, she did that just on purpose to make folks talk--to make people believe that we abuse her. Of course, she told May that _I_ sent her to the top story to sleep. You get rid of that girl, Pa, or I declare I'll go away. I guess I can find somebody to take me in as long as you wish to keep Prince Morrell's daughter here in _my_ place." "Ahem! I--I must beg you to compose yourself, Belle----" "I won't--and that's flat!" declared his eldest daughter. "Either she goes; or I do." "Do let Belle go, Pa," drawled Flossie. "She is getting too bossy, anyway. _I_ don't mind having Helen here. She is rather good fun. And May Van Ramsden came here particularly to see Helen." "That's not so!" cried Belle, stamping her foot. "It is. Maggie heard her say so. Maggie was coming up the stairs and heard May ask Helen to take her to her room. What could the poor girl do?" "Ahem! Flossie--I am amazed at you--amazed at you!" gasped Mr. Starkweather. "What do you learn at school?" "Goodness me! I couldn't tell you," returned the youngest of his daughters, carelessly. "It's none of it any good, though, Pa. You might as well take me out." "I've told that girl to use the back stairs, and to keep out of the front of the house," went on Belle, ignoring Flossie. "If she had not been hanging about the front of the house, May Van Ramsden would not have seen her----" "'Tain't so!" snapped Flossie. "_Will_ you be still, minx?" demanded the older sister. "I don't care. Let's give Helen a fair deal. I tell you, Pa, May said she came particularly to see Helen. Besides, Helen had been in Hortense's room, and that is where May found her. Helen was brushing Hortense's hair. Hortense told me so." "Ahem! I am astonished at you, Flossie. The fact remains that Helen is a source of trouble in the house. I really do wish I knew how to get rid of her." "You give me permission, Pa," sneered Belle, "and I'll get rid of her very quickly--you see!" "No, no!" exclaimed the troubled father. "I--I cannot use the iron hand at present--not at present." "Humph!" exclaimed the shrewd Belle. "I'd like to know what you are afraid of, Pa?" Mr. Starkweather tried to frown down his daughter, but was unsuccessful. He merely presented a picture of a very cowardly man trying to look brave. It wasn't much of a picture. So--as may be easily conceived--Helen was not met at dinner by her relatives in any conciliatory manner. Yet the girl from the West really wished she might make friends with Uncle Starkweather and her cousins. "It must be that a part of the fault is with me," she told herself, when she crept up to her room after a gloomy time in the dining-room. "If I had it in me to please them--to make them happier--surely they could not treat me as they do. Oh, dear, I wish I had learned better how to be popular."