She hesitated for a moment, and then went and stood with her hand resting upon the girl's shoulder.
"Jeanne," she said, "I think that we have both been a little hasty." Jeanne looked up in surprise.

Her stepmother's tone was altered.

It was no longer cold and dictatorial.

There was in it even a note of appeal.
Jeanne wondered to find herself so unmoved.
"I am sorry," she said, "if I have said anything unbecoming.

You see," she continued, after a moment's pause, "the subject which we were talking about did not seem to me to leave much room for discussion." "There is no harm in discussing anything," the Princess said, throwing herself into a wicker chair by the side of Jeanne's table.