"Ho yes"—very contemptuous. "I never get ill."
"Then you must go to church. It's the custom in this house."
"Venie says you go only twice a year. I'll go when you do."
The old lady's eyes blazed behind her gold spectacles.
"You'll go when you are told." Awful pause. "When you are my age you may suit yourself."
"Father hasn't had to wait all that time; he doesn't go now."
"Your father is very ill."
"Didn't go when he was well; that is, hardly ever," added the explicit young person.
"He went regularly as a boy, before he had a house of his own. But I'm not accustomed to arguing with children. Go and get dressed."
Val wavered a moment, then faced about gravely. She planted herself before the old lady, with the wide-apart legs and tense look of one who braces herself to bear the crack of doom.