Red spots blazed on her cheeks, her mouth widened in a curious, tense smile.

"Why have you been crying ?" she demanded again when Ina did not reply at once to her question.
"Because papa is going to whip Eddy," Ina said then, with directness, "and I know he will whip him very hard, because he has been stealing." "Well, what is that to cry about ?" asked Mrs.Carroll, ruffling with indignation.

"Don't you think the boy's father knows what is best for his own son?
He won't hurt him any more than he ought to be hurt." "I only hope he will hurt himself as much as he ought to be hurt," muttered Anna Carroll on the divan.

Mrs.Carroll gave her sister-in-law one look, then swept out of the room.

The tail of her rose-colored silk curled around the door-sill, and she was gone.