She was going to make some indignant excuse for her mother, some excuse which would be calculated to make her uncle angry.

It was her practice to say such sharp words to him, and consequently he did not regard her as warmly as her more silent and more prudent sister.

At the present moment he turned quickly round and went into the house; and then, with a very few words of farewell, the two young men followed him.

The girls went back over the little bridge by themselves, feeling that the afternoon had not gone off altogether well.
"You shouldn't provoke him, Lily," said Bell.
"And he shouldn't say those things about mamma.

It seems to me that you don't mind what he says." "Oh, Lily." "No more you do.