Della screamed and Sam shouted.  Penrod had disappeared from view.

The delayed dance was about to begin a most uneven cotillon when Samuel Williams arrived.

Mrs. Schofield hurriedly left the ballroom; while Miss Rennsdale, flushing with sudden happiness, curtsied profoundly to Professor Bartet and obtained his attention.

“I have telled you fifty times,” he informed her passionately ere she spoke, “I cannot make no such changes.  If your partner comes you have to dance with him.  You are going to drive me crazy, sure!  What is it?  What now?  What you want?”

The damsel curtsied again and handed him the following communication, addressed to herself: 

“Dear madam Please excuse me from dancing the cotilon with you this afternoon as I have fell off the barn

“Sincerly yours

“Penrod Schofield.”

CHAPTER XV THE TWO FAMILIES

Penrod entered the schoolroom, Monday picturesquely leaning upon a man’s cane shortened to support a cripple approaching the age of twelve.  He arrived about twenty minutes late, limping deeply, his brave young mouth drawn with pain, and the sensation he created must have been a solace to him; the only possible criticism of this entrance being that it was just a shade too heroic.  Perhaps for that reason it failed to stagger Miss Spence, a woman so saturated with suspicion that she penalized Penrod for tardiness as promptly and as coldly as if he had been a mere, ordinary, unmutilated boy.  Nor would she entertain any discussion of the justice of her ruling.  It seemed, almost, that she feared to argue with him.

However, the distinction of cane and limp remained to him, consolations which he protracted far into the week—­until Thursday evening, in fact, when Mr. Schofield, observing from a window his son’s pursuit of Duke round and round the backyard, confiscated the cane, with the promise that it should not remain idle if he saw Penrod limping again.  Thus, succeeding a depressing Friday, another Saturday brought the necessity for new inventions.

It was a scented morning in apple-blossom time.  At about ten of the clock Penrod emerged hastily from the kitchen door.  His pockets bulged abnormally; so did his checks, and he swallowed with difficulty.  A threatening mop, wielded by a cooklike arm in a checkered sleeve, followed him through the doorway, and he was preceded by a small, hurried, wistful dog with a warm doughnut in his mouth.  The kitchen door slammed petulantly, enclosing the sore voice of Della, whereupon Penrod and Duke seated themselves upon the pleasant sward and immediately consumed the spoils of their raid.