I did care," pleaded Kitty.

"Of course I thought she was ahead of us.

I never dreamed that she could have lost her way, or of course I shouldn't have come home without looking for her." "Then you should have dreamed, or have taken the trouble to find out.
In any case, you should not have left the spot without her." "But we really thought she was ahead of us," repeated Kitty earnestly, "and we hurried on to pick her up." "_How_ could you overtake her or pick her up, when you were hurrying as fast as you could away from her, leaving her alone, poor child, to wander about that dreadful, dreadful place, in that awful storm in the dead of night ?" demanded Aunt Pike angrily.
"But--" began Kitty, then realized the hopelessness of trying to explain, and said no more.
"For the future I shall always feel," said Aunt Pike severely, "that I not only cannot trust you, Katherine, but that I can never know what mischief you may be leading the younger ones into.

I am sure they would not be so wild if they hadn't you as a ringleader." Kitty's cheeks flamed with indignation.

_She_ could not be trusted! _She_ led the others into mischief! Her eyes darkened with anger at the injustice, for all the trouble had been caused by Anna deciding, in her pig-headed way, that she knew a short cut home, and would take it without waiting for the others and the donkey.