She jumped up in a sitting posture, with a short cry of fear, thinking that she was in the hands of a robber.
“Be quiet, fool,” said the tall woman, slipping her hand over the girl’s mouth. “I’m a lady, a friend of Mrs. Mildred Tarnley, and I’m come to stay in the house. Who is the lady that sleeps upstairs in the room that used to be Mr. Harry’s? You must answer true, or I’ll pull your ear very hard.”
“It is the mistress, please ’m,” answered the frightened girl.
“Married lady?”
“Yes ’m.”
“Who is her husband?”
With this question the big fingers of her visitor closed upon Lilly Dogger’s ear with a monitory pinch.
“The master, ma’am.”
“And what’s the master’s name, you dirdy liddle brevarigator?”
And with these words her ear was wrung sharply.