Mona looked frightened, and Millie noticed it. "What do you mean,
Millie?"
Millie had seen the baker come, knock, open the door, and leave again
after depositing a loaf on the table. She had also seen Mrs. Barnes
comfortably settled in Lucy Carne's kitchen, and she determined to have
some fun. She loved teasing and annoying everyone she could.
"Come down and see what they've done. At any rate, you might be civil to
anyone who comes in to warn you before any more harm is done."
Mona, still looking alarmed, slipped from the window-seat and followed
Millie down the stairs.
While she stood at the foot of them, glancing about her anxiously, Millie
stepped over and shut the house door.
"Where?--What?--I don't see anything wrong," said Mona. Millie burst into
mocking laughter. "I don't suppose you do! Silly-billy, cock-a-dilly,
how's your mother, little Mona! Why, how stupid you are! Anyone can get a
rise out of you! I only wanted to frighten you and get you downstairs.
You're going to ask me to tea now, and give me a nice one, too, aren't
you?"
Mona was trembling with mortification and anger. "No, I am not," she
said, "and if you don't go out of here in a minute I'll--I'll----"
"Oh, no--you won't, dear. You couldn't if you wanted to--but you don't
really want to, I know. Now poke up the fire and get me some tea.
I hope you have something nice to eat."
Mona stood by the dressers, her thoughts flying wildly through her brain.
What could she do? Millie was taller, older, and stronger than herself,
so she could not seize her, and put her out by force. Mona knew, too,
that she would not listen to pleading or to coaxing.
"Oh, if only someone would come!" She made a move towards the door, but
Millie was too quick for her, and got between her and it.
"Millie, you've got to go away. You'll get me into an awful row if you
are found here, and--and I can't think how you can push yourself in where
you ain't wanted."
"Oh, fie! Little girls shouldn't be rude--it shows they haven't been
properly brought up."
Mona did not answer. She was trying to think what she could do. If she
went out of the house would Millie follow?
Millie picked up a newspaper, and pretended to read it, but over the top
of it she was watching Mona all the time. She loved teasing, and she
thought she had power to make younger girls do just as she wished.
But Mona stood leaning against the dressers, showing no sign of giving in.
Millie grew impatient. "Wake up, can't you!" she cried, and, picking up a
cushion from an armchair beside her, she threw it across the room at Mona.
"I want my tea!"
The cushion flew past Mona without touching her, but it fell full crash
against the china on the dressers behind her. Mona screamed, and tried to
catch what she could of the falling things. Cups, plate, jugs came
rolling down on the top of those below. What could one pair of small
hands do to save them!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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