Meanwhile Max had obeyed the order to go to his room in almost as angry and rebellious a mood as Lulu’s own.  He shut the door, threw down his package, tore off his overcoat and stamped about the floor for a minute or two, fuming and raging.

“I say it’s just shameful! abominable treatment!  I’m tired being treated like a baby, and I won’t stand it!  The idea of being shut up here for twenty-four hours for such a trifle!  Oh, dear!” he added, dropping into a chair, “I’m as hungry as a bear.  I wonder if he doesn’t mean to let me have any supper?  I don’t believe Mamma Vi would approve of his starving me altogether; no, nor Grandma Elsie, either; I hope they’ll manage to give me something to eat before bedtime.  If they don’t, I believe I’ll try to bribe Tom when he comes to see to the fire.”

It was not long before he heard Tom’s step on the stairs, then his knock on the door.

“Come in,” he answered, in cheerful tones; then, as he caught sight of a waiter full of good things, such as his sisters were supping upon, “Hurrah!  Tom, you’re a brick!  But who sent it?”

“Miss Wilet; and she says if dars not nuff ob it to satisfy yo’ appetite, you’s to ring for mo’.”

“All right; tell Mamma Vi I’m much obliged,” said Max.

“Very good prison fare,” he added to himself, as he fell to work, Tom having withdrawn, “I’ve good reason to be fond of Mamma Vi, and as she’s fond of her grandfather, I s’pose I’ll have to forgive him for her sake,” he concluded, quite restored to good humor, and laughing gleefully at his own jest.

“O Lulu,” exclaimed Gracie, struck with a sudden recollection, and laying down the spoon with which she was eating her oysters, “you know I was to stay alone.  You oughtn’t to have come in here.”

“Pooh! your time was up a good while ago,” returned Lulu, “and Mamma Vi must have expected me to come in here to eat supper along with you.  I hope she has sent as good a one to poor Maxie.”

Violet went directly from the supper-room to her own apartments, where she found the two little girls quietly talking together, while Agnes gathered up the remainder of their repast and carried it and the dishes away.

“I hope you enjoyed your supper, dears,” she said.

They both said they had, and thanked her for it.

“And I didn’t deserve it, mamma,” added Gracie, her tears beginning to fall again; “but oh, I’m sorry, very sorry!  Please, mamma, forgive me.”

“I have entirely forgiven the sin against me, darling,” whispered Violet, folding her close to her heart, “and I trust God has forgiven your far greater sin against Him.  Now do not cry any more, or you will make yourself sick, and that would make me very sad.”

Lulu was sitting near fighting a battle with pride and passion, in which ere-long she came off conqueror.

“Mamma Vi,” she said with determination, “I didn’t deserve it either, and I’m sorry, too, for being angry at your grandfather and saucy to him.”