"I hope, Helen, that you will behave properly," said that lady when Helen, a little shrinking and downcast, as she always was now in her stepmother's presence, appeared before her. "I scarcely like letting you go, my sister's children are so well brought up. Pray be careful, and avoid, if you can, doing anything dreadful. Don't loll in your chair at the table, and please only speak when you are spoken to." "I--I will do my best," answered Helen, struggling with her rising temper. "Is that all?" Mrs. Desmond looked at her sharply. "I hope you are not going to sulk, Helen. I should not have said this had I not recollected your forward behaviour when my cousin, Miss Macleod, was with us. Take example from Agatha. She is really a charming girl. So gentle and ready to please! so full of deference for her elders! With a little polish--" "Agatha can get into a passion and box her little brother's ears when she thinks that no one is looking," burst out Helen. "Helen, you shock and disgust me. How can you repeat such low gossip?" "It isn't gossip," cried Helen. But she was already repentant. "I am sorry I said it, though; it was mean," she went on. "I will try to behave as you wish me to. But oh! I _wish_ I might stop at home." "Nonsense, Helen! Go at once. I have nothing more to say to you, and I hope you will keep your word and neither say nor do anything to shock my sister." The girl looked at Mrs. Desmond for a moment and then turned away impatiently, half-choked with the indignant words that rose to her lips. The door closed rather noisily behind her as she rushed out into the large square hall, where her father stood sunning himself in the open doorway. "Dear, dearest father!" she cried, running up to him and flinging her arms round his neck. "Don't smother me, child," he returned, laughing and gently disengaging himself from her embrace. "Why, Helen," he went on, "tears! What is the matter?" "Nothing, nothing," cried the girl eagerly, dashing them away. "I am going to the Rectory to spend a long day. I must not keep Agatha waiting any longer. Good-bye!" Just then the drawing-room door opened and Mrs. Desmond appeared. She misinterpreted the situation, of course, but she made no remark as Helen ran past her, although she threw an indignant glance at the girl. "What is the matter with Helen?" asked the colonel rather sharply as his wife joined him. She smiled disagreeably. "Need you ask me? You have heard the child's story." "I have heard no story. But I did hope that we should have no more of these painful scenes." "So did I." This was all that passed on the subject, but once more a shadow fell between husband and wife.