Mable didn't want to listen to this woman.  She wanted to yell and cry and curl up in a hole and stay there forever.  She certainly didn't want to believe that Nettie was right, but she was, and that was the worst part of all.

It wasn't fair, and Mable wasn't being fair either.  She was upset, but she did not have a right to take it out on Nettie and Francis.  Or - she didn't have a right to take it out on Nettie.  Francis was a bother, and really probably didn't care for anything except kissing Edmund.  Gross.

The girl swallowed around a lump in her throat, tears finally falling from her eyes and down her face.  Shame and guilt joined the stew of emotions inside her, weighing her down until she was kneeling like Nettie was.  With a lack of anything else to do, she also gathered up her precious papers, putting them inside the cover of her bible.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, her voice raw and dry.  "You're lovely, and I've been - just the worst.  I'm really sorry."