"No! it is a positive fact that she does at times _really
abuse_ her."
"Indeed! I shall certainly not allow _that_" he said,
coloring with anger.
"But in this instance, Adelaide," he added thoughtfully, "I think
you must be mistaken, for Elsie _acknowledged_ that she had
been impertinent. I did not condemn her unheard, stern and severe
as you think me."
"If she _was_, Horace, believe me it must have been only
after great provocation, and her acknowledgment of it is no proof
at all, to my mind; for Elsie is so humble, she would think she
_must_ have been guilty of impertinence if Miss Day accused
her of it."
"Surely not, Adelaide; she is by no means wanting in sense," he
replied, in a tone of incredulity, not unmixed with annoyance.
Then he sat thinking a moment, half inclined to go to his child
and inquire more particularly into the circumstances, but soon
relinquished the idea, saying to himself, "No; if she does not
choose to be frank with me, and say what she can in her own
defence, she _deserves_ to suffer; and besides, she showed
such stubbornness about eating that bread.
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