l,
though she almost wished he'd have to leave town unexpectedly; she
didn't see how she'd ever face him again--but she knew there was a
reckoning waiting at home.

It was a painful and unforgettable scene. Mother had heard already;
father had telephoned from the office. Missy supposed all Cherryvale was
telephoning but she deferred thoughts of her wider disgrace; at present
mother was enough. Mother was fearfully angry--Missy knew she would
never understand. She said harsher things than she'd ever said before.
Making such a spectacle of herself!--her own daughter, whom she'd tried
to train to be a lady! This feature of the situation seemed to stir
mother almost more violently than the flagrant disobedience.

"It's all that O'Neill girl," said Aunt Nettie. "Ever since she came
here to live, Missy's been up to just one craziness after another."

Mother looked out the window and sighed. Missy was suddenly conscious
that she loved her mother very much; despite the fact that mother had
just said harsh things, that she was going to punish her, that she never
understood. A longing welled up in her to fling her arms round mother's
neck and assure her that she never MEANT to be a spectacle, that she had
only--

But what was the use of trying to explain? Mother wouldn't understand
and she couldn't explain it in words, anyway--not even to herself. So
she stood first on one foot and then on the other, and felt perfectly
inadequate and miserable.

At last, wanting frightfully to say something that would ameliorate her
conduct somewhat in mother's eyes, she said:

"I guess it WAS an awful thing to do, mother. And I'm AWFULLY sorry.
But it wouldn't have come out quite so bad--I could have managed Gypsy
better, I think--if it hadn't been for that old wasp."

"Wasp?" questioned mother.

"Yes, there was a lot of mud-wasps got to flying around and one some way
got inside of my--my breeches. And you know how scared to death I am
of wasps. I KNOW I could have managed Gypsy, but when I felt that wasp
crawling around--" She broke off; tried again. "Don't think I couldn't
manage her--but when I felt that--"

"Well, if the wasp was all that was the matter," queried mother, "why
didn't you go after it?"

Missy didn't reply.

"Why did you just stand there and let it keep stinging you?"

Missy opened her lips but quickly closed them again. She realized there
was something inconsistent in her explanation. Mother had accused her of