governess's side of the table, "I _don't_ think you are cross. I
shouldn't mind if you were a little sometimes. And I know we are often
troublesome--aren't we, Rosy?" Rosy gave a little grunt, which was a
good deal for her, and showed that her feelings, too, were touched.
"But just then I _had_ been trying. Aunt Lillias had spoken to us
about it, and I _did_ want to please her"--and the unbidden tears
rose to Bee's eyes. "Please, Miss Pink, don't think I don't know when
I _am_ to blame, but--but you won't speak that way of me another
time when I've not been to blame." A sort of smothered sob here came
from Miss Pink, as a match to Rosy's grunt. "And _please_," Bee
went on, "don't say _anything_ more about that time to Aunt
Lillias. It's done now, and it would only make fresh trouble."

That it would make trouble for _her_, Miss Pink felt convinced,
and she was not very difficult to persuade to take Bee's advice.

"It would indeed bring _me_ trouble," she thought, as she walked
home more slowly than usual that the fresh air might take away the
redness from her eyes before her mother saw her. "I know Mrs. Vincent
would never forgive me if she thought I had exaggerated or
misrepresented. I'm sure I didn't want to blame Bee; but I was so
startled; and Mrs. Vincent seemed to think so much less of it when I
let her suppose they had _both_ been careless and tiresome. But
it has been a lesson to me. And Beata is _very_ good. I could
never say a word against her again."

Miss Vincent arrived, and with her, of course, her maid Nelson.
Everything went off most pleasantly the first evening. Aunt Edith
seemed delighted to see Rosy again, and that was only kind and
natural. And she said to every one how well Rosy was looking, and how