IX.


Florida began to prepare the bed for her mother's lying down.

"What are you doing that for, my dear?" asked Mrs. Vervain. "I can't go
to bed at once."

"But mother"--

"No, Florida. And I mean it. You are too headstrong. I should think you
would see yourself how you suffer in the end by giving way to your
violent temper. What a day you have made for us!"

"I was very wrong," murmured the proud girl, meekly.

"And then the mortification of an apology; you might have spared
yourself that."

"It didn't mortify me; I didn't care for it."

"No, I really believe you are too haughty to mind humbling yourself.
And Don Ippolito had been so uniformly kind to us. I begin to believe
that Mr. Ferris caught your true character in that sketch. But your
pride will be broken some day, Florida."