“Not again,” said the daughter of Erin firmly, “because I have already told ye wance. Linda’s gone like a rag bag since the Lord knows when. She had a right to the dress, and she thought it was hers, and she took it. And if ye ever want any more respect or obedience or love from the kiddie, ye better never let her know that ye didn’t intend it for her, for nothing was ever quite so fair and right as that she should have it; and while you’re about it you’d better go straight to the store and get her what she is needin’ to go with it, or better still, ye had better give her a fair share of the money of which there used to be such a plenty, and let her get her things herself, for she’s that tasty nobody can beat her when she’s got anything to do with.”
Eileen turned on Katy in a gust of fury.
“Katherine O’Donovan,” she said shrilly, “pack your trunk and see how quick you can get out of this house. I have stood your insolence for years, and I won’t endure it a minute longer!”
Katy folded her red arms and lifted her red chin, and a steel-blue light flashed from her steel-gray eyes.
“Humph!” she said, “I’ll do nothing of the sort. I ain’t working for ye and I never have been no more than I ever worked for your mother. Every lick I ever done in this house I done for Linda and Doctor Strong and for nobody else. Half of this house and everything in it belongs to Linda, and it’s a mortal short time till she’s of age to claim it. Whichever is her half, that half I’ll be staying in, and if ye manage so as she’s got nothing to pay me, I’ll take care of her without pay till the day comes when she can take care of me. Go to wid ye, ye triflin’, lazy, self-possessed creature. Ten years I have itched to tell ye what I thought of ye, and now ye know it.”
As Katy’s rage increased, Eileen became intimidated. Like every extremely selfish person she was a coward in her soul.
“If you refuse to go on my orders,” she said, “I’ll have John Gilman issue his.”
Then Katy set her left hand on her left hip, her lower jaw shot past the upper, her doubled right fist shook precious near the tip of Eileen’s exquisite little nose.
“I’m darin’ ye,” she shouted. “I’m just darin’ ye to send John Gilman in the sound of my voice. If ye do, I’ll tell him every mean and selfish thing ye’ve done to me poor lambie since the day of the Black Shadow. Send him to me? Holy Mither, I wish ye would! If ever I get my chance at him, don’t ye think I won’t be tellin’ him what he has lost, and what he has got? And as for taking orders from him, I am taking my orders from the person I am working for, and as I told ye before, that’s Miss Linda. Be off wid ye, and primp up while I get my supper, and mind ye this, if ye tell Miss Linda ye didn’t mean that gown for her and spoil the happy day she has had, I won’t wait for ye to send John Gilman to me; I’ll march straight to him. Put that in your cigarette and smoke it! Think I’ve lost me nose as well as me sense?”
Then Katy started a triumphal march to the kitchen and cooled down by the well-known process of slamming pots and pans for half an hour. Soon her Irish sense of humor came to her rescue.