Her reply was
characteristic:
"MY DEAR REGIE,--"
I shan't send nice messages to Leo. I am sorry you showed
him the letter where I said he was handsome. Handsome is
that handsome does, and if he treats you badly he is very
ugly, and I hate him. If he doesn't give you any bacon, he's
very mean. You may tell him what I say.
"I am your affectionate cousin,
"POLLY."
I was obliged to hide this letter from Leo; but when he asked me if I
had heard from Polly I could not lie to him, and he sent me to
Coventry for withholding the letter. I bore a day and a half of his
silence and neglect; then I could endure it no longer, and showed him
the letter. He was less angry than I expected. He coloured and
laughed, and called me a little fool for writing such stuff to Polly,
and said her answer was just like her. Then he gave me some of the
bacon, and we were good friends again.
But the seal of our friendship was a certain occasion when I saved him
from the only flogging with which he was ever threatened.
He was unjustly believed to be concerned in an insolent breach of
certain orders, and was sentenced to a flogging which was really the
due of another lad whom he was too proud to betray.
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