not tell him without
complaining of his daughter, and in fact it was an additional pain
that Queen Bee should have used all her powerful influence in the wrong
direction.

It was impossible to be long vexed with the little Busy Bee, even in
such circumstances as these, especially when she came up to her, put
her arm into hers, and looked into her face with all the sweetness that
could sometimes reside in those brown features of hers, saying, "My
poor Henrietta, I am afraid we have been putting you to torture all this
time, but you know that it is quite nonsense to be afraid of anything
happening."

"O yes, I know that, but really, Queenie, you should not have persuaded
him."

"I? Well, I believe it was rather naughty of me to laugh at him, for
persuade him I did not, but if you had but seen him in the point I did,
and known how absurd you two poor disconsolate creatures looked, you
would not have been able to help it. And how was I to know that he would
go into the only dangerous place he could find, just by way of bravado?
I could have beaten myself when I saw that, but it is all safe, and no
harm done."

"There is your papa displeased with him."

"O, I will settle that; I will tell him it was half of it my fault, and
beg him to say nothing about it. And as for Fred--I should like to make
a charade of fool-hardy, with a personal application. Did you ever act a
charade, Henrietta?"

"Never; I scarcely know what it is."

"O charming, charming! What rare fun we will have! I wish I had not told
you of fool-hardy, for now we can't have that, but this evening, O, this
evening, I am no Queen Bee if you do not see what will amaze you! Alex!
Alex! Where is the boy? I must speak to you this instant."

Pouncing upon Alexander, she drew him a little behind the others, and
was presently engaged in an eager low-voiced conference, apparently
persuading him to something much against his inclination, but Henrietta
was not sufficiently happy to bestow much curiosity on the subject. All
her thoughts were with Fred, and she had not long been in Church before
all her mother's fears seemed to have passed to her. Her mother had
recovered her serenity, and was able to trust her boy in the hands of
his Heavenly Father, while Henrietta, haunted by the remembrance of
many a moral tale, was tormenting herself with the expectation of
retribution, and dwelling on a fancied figure of her brother lifted
senseless out of the water, with clo