Philip could not help smiling, for to him it seemed ridiculous.
“You laugh,” said his step-mother sharply. “I am not surprised at it. You delight in your brutality.”
“I suppose you mean that I have treated Jonas brutally.”
“I see you confess it.”
“No, Mrs. Brent, I do not confess it. The brutality you speak of was all on the side of Jonas.”
“No doubt,” retorted Mrs. Brent, with sarcasm.
“It's the case of the wolf and the lamb over again.”
“I don't think Jonas has represented the matter to you as it happened,” said Phil. “Did he tell you that he flung a snow-ball at my head as hard as a lump of ice?”
“He said he threw a little snow at you playfully and you sprang upon him like a tiger.”
“There's a little mistake in that,” said Phil. “The snow-ball was hard enough to stun me if it had hit me a little higher. I wouldn't be hit like that again for ten dollars.”