"I may have my faults," said Corona coldly, candidly, "but I am not a listener."
"I—I beg your pardon," stammered Brother Copas, somewhat abashed. "But the fact remains that your behaviour to Nurse Turner has been most disrespectful, and your language altogether unbecoming. You have given your father and me a great shock: and I am sure you did not wish to do that."
"I'm miserable enough, if that's what you mean," the child confessed, still hugging her golliwog and staring with haggard eyes at the window. "But if you want me to say that I'm sorry—"
"That is just what I want you to say."
"Well, then, I can't.… Nurse Turner's a beast—a beast—a BEAST!"
Corona's face whitened, and her voice shrilled higher at each repetition.
"—She hates Branny like poison, and I hate her.… There! And now you must take and punish me as much as you please. What's it going to be?" She rocked her small body as she looked up with straight eyes, awaiting sentence.
"You are to go to bed at once, and without any supper," said Brother Copas, keeping his voice steady on the words he loathed to utter.
Again Corona seemed to weigh them.
"That seems fair enough," she decided. "Are you going to lock me in?"