Max, standing with averted face, a little apart from the speaker, heard every word that was said.

The boy was sorely troubled.  He turned and walked away, saying to himself, “She will never do it; I don’t believe any power on earth can make her, and Grandpa Dinsmore is about as determined as she; so what is to come of it I can’t tell.  Oh, if papa were only here! nobody else can manage Lu when she gets into one of her stubborn fits, and I don’t believe he’d make her go back to that horrid savage of a music-teacher.  I’ve a notion to write and tell him all about it.  But no, where would be the use?  I dare say the whole affair will be over before my letter could reach him and an answer come back.”

Very tenderly and carefully Elsie bound up the wounded fingers; then taking the little girl in her arms she kissed her kindly, saying, “You were treated very badly, my dear child, but it is not likely the man will venture to act so again after my father has spoken to him and warned him of the consequences of such behavior.”

“I think he won’t to me,” Lulu answered, the stubborn, defiant look returning to her face.

“Do the fingers feel better?” Elsie asked gently.

“Yes, ma’am; and I am very much obliged.  Grandma Elsie, do you know where Gracie is?”

“I think you will find her in the playroom.”

Lulu immediately resorted thither, and found Grace playing happily with her dolls.

“Oh, Lu, I’m so glad you have come!” she cried, glancing up at her sister as she entered.

“I do miss you so all day long while you are at school!  But what’s the matter with your hand?” she asked with concern.

“Nothing very serious,” Lulu answered carelessly.  “That villain of a music-teacher snapped his pointer on my fingers and blistered them; that’s all.”

“Oh, Lu, what a shame!  Did it hurt you very much?”

“Quite a good deal; but of course it was the insult, not the pain, that I cared for.”

She went on to give the details of the occurrence to this new listener, who heard them with tears of sympathy and indignation.

“I think somebody ought to whip him,” she said; “and I hope he’ll never have a chance to strike you again.”

“I don’t intend he shall.  I’ve said I won’t take another lesson from him, and I don’t intend to.  But Grandpa Dinsmore says I must; so there’ll be another fight.”

“Oh, Lu, don’t!” cried Grace, in terror; “don’t try to fight him.  Don’t you remember how he ’most made Grandma Elsie die when she was a little girl, ’cause she wouldn’t do what he told her to?”

Lulu nodded.  “But I’m another kind of girl,” she said; “and I’m not his child, so I think he wouldn’t dare be quite so cruel to me.”

“How brave you are, Lulu!” Grace exclaimed in admiration.  “But, oh, I am so sorry for you!  I’d be frightened ’most to death, I think; frightened to think of going back to that signor, and dreadfully afraid to refuse if Grandpa Dinsmore said I must.”