If Derette had not been on her good behaviour, Hagena would have received as much as she gave. But knowing that her only chance of success lay in civil and submissive manners, she shut her lips tight and made no answer.
“Who sent you?” pursued Hagena, who was the Countess’s mistress of the household, and next in authority to her.
“Nobody. I came of myself.”
“Ha, chétife! I do wonder what the world’s coming to! The impudence of the creature! How on earth did she get in? Just get out again as fast as you can, and come on such an errand again if you dare! Be off with you!”
Derette’s voice trembled, but not with fear, as she turned back to Cumina. To Hagena she vouchsafed no further word.
“I did not know I was offending any body,” she said, in a manner not devoid of childish dignity. “I was trying to do a little bit of good. I think, if you please, I had better go home.”
Derette’s speech infuriated Hagena. The child had kept her manners and her dignity too, under some provocation, while the mistress of the household was conscious that she had lost hers.
“How dare—” she was beginning, when another voice made her stop suddenly.
“What has the child been doing? I wish to speak with her.”
Cumina hastily stopped Derette from leaving the room, and led her up to the lady who had spoken and who had only just entered.