It was a rainy day, and we passed the recess indoors.  I remained quiet, looking over my lesson.  “The first period ends with the carboniferous system; the second includes the saliferous and magnesian systems; the third comprises the oolitic and chalk systems; the fourth—­” “How attentive some people are to their lessons,” I heard Charlotte Alden say.  Looking up, I saw her near me with Elmira Sawyer.

“What is that you say?” I asked sharply.

“I am not speaking to you.”

“I am angry,” I said in a low tone, and rising, “and have borne enough.”

“Who are you that you should be angry?  We have heard about your mother, when she was in love, poor thing.”

I struck her so violent a blow in the face that she staggered backward.  “You are a liar,” I said, “and you must let me alone.”  Elmira Sawyer turned white, and moved away.  I threw my book at her; it hit her head, and her comb was broken by my geological systems.  There was a stir; Miss Black hurried from her desk, saying, “Young ladies, what does this mean?  Miss C. Morgeson, your temper equals your vulgarity, I find.  Take your seat in my desk.”

I obeyed her, and as we passed Mary Bennett’s desk, where I saw the paper fall, I picked it up.  “See the good manners of your favorite, Miss Black; read it.”  She bit her lips as she glanced over it, turned back as if to speak to Charlotte Alden, looked at me again, and went on:  “Sit down, Miss C. Morgeson, and reflect on the blow you have given.  Will you ask pardon?”

“I will not; you know that.”

“I have never resorted to severe punishment yet; but I fear I shall be obliged to in your case.”

“Let me go from here.”  I clenched my hands, and tried to get up.  She held me down on the seat, and we looked close in each other’s eyes.  “You are a bad girl.”  “And you are a bad woman,” I replied; “mean and cruel.”  She made a motion to strike me, but her hand dropped; I felt my nostrils quiver strangely.  “For shame,” she said, in a tremulous voice, and turned away.  I sat on the bench at the back of the desk, heartily tired, till school was dismissed; as Charlotte Alden passed out, courtesying, Miss Black said she hoped she would extend a Christian forgiveness to Miss C. Morgeson, for her unladylike behavior.  “Miss C. Morgeson is a peculiar case.”

She gave her a meaning look, which was not lost upon me.  Charlotte answered, “Certainly,” and bowed to me gracefully, whereat I felt a fresh sense of my demerits, and concluded that I was worsted in the fray.

Miss Black asked no explanation of the affair; it was dropped, and none of the girls alluded to it by hint or look afterward.  When I told Aunt Mercy of it, she turned pale, and said she knew what Charlotte Alden meant, and that perhaps mother would tell me in good time.

“We had a good many troubles in our young days, Cassy.”

CHAPTER X.