Miss Clark's whole soul rose up in absolute loathing within her.
"You vulgar, vulgar child!" she thought. Aloud she said, "Flossie, my dear, a lady would not say such a thing as that. Your mother would be very, very angry if she heard it. Come, it is useless to stay grumbling and sulking here; you will have to accept the situation. Mrs. Stubbs is your mother, and the mistress of this house and family. She does not ask your leave whether she shall take you out with her or not. She would be a very bad mother to you if she did, instead of being, as she is now, a very good one. Let me hear not another word, but put your things on to go out with me."
"Is Tom going?" Flossie inquired, not daring to refuse, though she would dearly have liked to do so.
"No. Tom and Johnnie are going out with Charles."
"And I have to just go out with you and three stupid girls?"
"With your three sisters, certainly."
"It's a beastly shame," Flossie burst out.
"Not another word," said the governess sharply. "Go and get ready at once."
And poor Flossie had to go. Of course it happened that as she began wrong at the beginning nothing went very well with her during the rest of the morning. Miss Clark went the one way she hated above all others; but Miss Clark had to do a small but important commission for Mrs. Stubbs, and was obliged to take it.
Then her sisters, whom she heartily despised--Tom being her favourite--annoyed her excessively. Janey would persist in lagging behind, and Minnie got a stone in her shoe and had to stop and take it off and shake out the pebble; and then, of course, she had to stop also to have her shoe tied again, and one or two people stopped to see what was amiss, as people do stop when they see any impediment to the general traffic in the London streets. "Making a perfect show of them all," Flossie said angrily.