“To think that it isn’t settled already, to think I would ever give in to you for a moment. Knuckle under! me! Oh! you think you can come over me with smiling, when you are in as blue a funk---- You, a bit of a governess hired just like the housemaid: and that’s exactly what mamma will say.” Janet yawned a little in the girl’s furious face, a gentle little yawn which did not at all distort her own countenance. “My poor child,” she said, “if you would only consider that I understand all that, and that we’d so much better come to business! You can’t frighten me, and though, of course, you can insult me, that’s of equally little use, for I don’t care.” “Because you’re used to it,” cried Julia. “No--once only before. It was a tramp on the road, an old woman, and I would not give her any money. It is curious to think where you can have learned the same sort of thing--brought up, I suppose, more or less like a lady--but it must be in the blood.” “Do you mean to say I’m not a lady--you--? Oh-h!” for Janet had gently shrugged those little shoulders which still felt the young fury’s grip. “I’ll go,” cried Julia, fiercely, “I’ll go this moment and tell mamma.” Janet sat quietly in her chair awaiting the discovery of the locked door, and somewhat alarmed lest there should ensue a physical struggle which would be undignified and unladylike. Then followed a whirlwind of noise, stamping, shrieking, and wild talk. “Give me the key! Open the door! I want to go to mamma. Mamma! Let me out. Let me out! I want to open the door,”--then a furious kick upon the panel. “Mamma! Gussy! I’m locked in; come, come, and open the door.” “It is a pity that all the servants should know you are in trouble, Julia. Let it remain between you and me,” said Janet, laying her hand upon the girl’s shoulder. “Open the door!” “No, I shall not open the door--nor shall anyone else, if I can help it. Let this remain between you and me.” “Mamma will send and order you to do it. Mamma! mamma! I am locked in. I can’t get out. Come and open the door!” How it was that no one heard these outcries Janet could not imagine: but they were at the top of the house: the kitchen was thoroughly occupied with its own affairs, and Mrs. Harwood, as she found out afterwards, had been wheeled out for her morning airing, so that silence alone replied to Julia’s passionate appeals. She rushed to the window and flung it open, but the gardener was not visible in the garden. After half-an-hour of tumult, an enforced silence fell upon the school-room. But Julia was not yet overcome. “I shall keep you here all your life--you shan’t go--not a step. If I am to be shut in, you shall be shut in too. You shall have no lunch; you shall have no tea; you shall have no dinner!” said Julia, _crescendo_, rising to a climax.