“Sorry, but I don’t want to go.”
Following that surprising statement Rosa rushed around, tossing helpless garments from one end of the room to another, as if taking her spite out on them. She wasn’t saying a word to Nancy; Nancy wasn’t saying a word to her.
Presently Margot came in for the trays, and as she gathered things up she made known her disapproval of Rosa’s conduct.
“I don’t like to scold, Rosalind, when your cousin has just come, and your father is leaving—”
“Oh, go ahead and scold, Maggie,” said Rosa impertinently. “Get it out of your system. Your eyes look bulgy and—”
“Rosalind! I will not take any impudence. You know that,” replied Margot quite properly. “You may be too big to be put in a corner, but you would miss your allowance, and I’ve got to have some control of you if I am to be responsible for your welfare.”
At this threat, that her allowance would be withheld if she did not do better, Rosa quieted down—some. She stopped throwing things around but she did not speak to Nancy. Neither did Nancy speak to her. In fact, she felt like doing almost anything else, for her vacation was being spoiled just because Rosa was so obstinate.
If only she hadn’t come! If only she had gone with patient little Miss Manners, who loved her. Certainly Rosa couldn’t care anything about her and treat her this way.
Once Nancy started on this line of reasoning the inevitable was bound to happen. In feeling sorry for herself she was going to become homesick!
“I should think you would be ashamed—” began Margot, but Rosa checked her.