She tried to steady her lips. "But it was _our_ secret. Oh, why did you tell them? Oh, you've spoilt it all!" The corners of her mouth had dropped to their utmost limits, tears were flowing and sobs coming fast, and, angered by her own weakness, she stamped her foot, shaking her little body violently. "Oh, how horrid of you! W-why did you tell them? I don't want to hear about it now. I hate it, I hate it; I hate you all! Treating me like a baby!" She turned to Grace. "You nasty thing!" she cried, and smacked her face. "Theresa!" "I don't care--I don't care!" Clenching her hands and setting her teeth, her face as flaming as her hair, she lifted a foot and made a vicious thrust at her sister, but Grace, giggling through her alarm, managed to dodge the blow. Both her own failure and Grace's good-nature increased Theresa's passion. "You pig!" she cried. "You coward! I wish I had a knife! When we go to bed I'll kill you! O-oh!" With a long wail, she opened a window and rushed down the garden slope. Grace took a seat on a low stool, and waited for the interesting conversation which must follow, but Nancy was leaning back in her chair. "What is it, Nancy?" Edward Webb, clasping his table napkin with both hands, had run round the table. "Nothing much. I'm not very well. And Theresa's temper----" "You are not going to faint, are you, dear?" "I'll give you warning," Nancy said, twinkling up at him. "No, I'm better. Grace, go and see what Theresa's doing." "She's crying," said Grace. "She always does. And then she makes up stories about herself, she told me she did, and after that she comes and does something nice to you. If she's got any money I expect she'll buy me some sweets." "I think we had better leave her alone. I blame myself, Nancy. I ought to have warned you, but I had not realized what store she was setting on keeping the secret to ourselves. I did not even know it was to be a secret, but I am afraid I've hurt her feelings." "Evidently," said Nancy dryly. "Terry," said Grace in her low, husky voice, "always wants things to herself. She won't share anything of mine, and when I have girls to tea she just sits and stares at them. She says she wants a friend of her very own." "Poor little girl," said Nancy softly. "I think she likes it," said Grace serenely. "She's funny. Shall I tell you what she told me a little while ago? It isn't a secret." "Not even one of Theresa's secrets?" "Well, if it is," said Grace acutely, "it's the kind she'd like you to know. I heard her crying in bed, and I asked her what was the matter. She wouldn't tell me for a long time, and then she said she wished she knew about her real father and mother. She says she knows you found her on a doorstep or something like that. She kept saying, 'I'm a little waif! Oh, Daddy! oh, Mummy!'" "You ought to have told us before," said her father seriously. "She may have suffered more than we shall ever know."