ightful
hilarity as I did.

CHAPTER XXIV. EUNICE'S DIARY.

On entering the schoolroom we lost our gayety, all in a moment.
Something unpleasant had evidently happened.

Two of the eldest girls were sitting together in a corner, separated
from the rest, and looking most wickedly sulky. The teachers were at the
other end of the room, appearing to be ill at ease. And there, standing
in the midst of them, with his face flushed and his eyes angry--there
was papa, sadly unlike his gentle self in the days of his health and
happiness. On former occasions, when the exercise of his authority was
required in the school, his forbearing temper always set things right.
When I saw him now, I thought of what the doctor had said of his health,
on my way home from the station.

Papa advanced to us the moment we showed ourselves at the door.

He shook hands--cordially shook hands--with Philip. It was delightful to
see him, delightful to hear him say: "Pray don't suppose, Mr. Dunboyne,
that you are intruding; remain with us by all means if you like." Then
he spoke to Helena and to me, still excited, still not like himself:
"You couldn't have come here, my dears, at a time when your presence
was more urgently needed." He turned to the teachers. "Tell my
daughters what has happened; tell them why they see me here--shocked and
distressed, I don't deny it."

We now heard that the two girls in disgrace had broken the rules, and in
such a manner as to deserve severe punishment.

One of them had been discovered hiding a novel in her desk. The other
had misbehaved herself more seriously still--she had gone to the
theater. Instead of expressing any regret, they had actually dared to
complain of having to learn papa's improved catechism. They had even
accused him of treating them with severity, because they were poor
girls brought up on charity. "If we had been young ladies," they were
audacious enough to say, "more indulgence would have been shown to us;
we should have been allowed to read stories and to see plays."

All this time I had been asking myself what papa meant, when he told us
we could not have come to the schoolroom at a better time. His meaning
now appeared. When he spoke to the offending girls, he pointed to Helena
and to me.

"Here are my daughters," he said. "You will not deny that they are young
ladies. Now listen. They shall tell you themselves whether my rules make
any difference between them and you. Helena! Eunic