“How dare you stay out all night like that, you good-for-nothing little slut? I haven’t closed my eyes for wondering what’d happened to you. Where have you been?”
“At Ireen’s.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were going there?”
“I never thought of it, till I got here and found the door locked.”
“It wasn’t locked till nearly eleven o’clock, miss, and you could have come in by the side door, as you very well knew. And what were you doing out till eleven o’clock, I should like to know?”
“Nothing,” said Elsie, beginning to cry.
Her mother promptly boxed her ears. “Elsie Palmer, you’re nothing but a liar, and you’ll break your widowed mother’s heart and bring her to disgrace before you’re done. However you’ve managed to grow up what you are, so particular as I’ve been with the two of you, is more than I can understand. Tell me this directly minute, who you were with last night?”
Elsie maintained a sullen silence, dodging as her mother aimed another heavy blow at her.
“I declare you’ll make me lose my temper with you!” said Mrs. Palmer violently. “Answer me this instant.”
“I went to the cinema.”