“Grete can clean all that in a minute.”
“That isn’t your business! You lead the life of a princess here, and do nothing but what displeases me. I tell you, take those dirty dogs away!”
“First they must drink.”
“Great heavens, I will not have them drink here,” cried Betsy, beside herself with passion.
“They shall drink, in the garden,” answered Eline, quietly.
“I should like to see that!” shrieked her sister. “If I——” [[102]]
“Leo, Faust,” cried Eline, still with an irritating composure, as she motioned the dogs towards her.
Betsy fumed with rage; her lips quivered, her hands shook, her breath seemed to choke her. She could not say another word, she felt she could have struck Eline; but Eline, followed by the leaping dogs, slowly went her way through the passage into the garden, and filled a pail full of water at the tap. She thought it an exquisite delight to enrage Betsy that day. The dogs drank their fill, and she led them back into the hall.
Betsy still stood there, and her angry eyes flamed with rage at her own impotency. She would have liked to run after Eline and snatch the pail out of her hands, but her nerves were too excited.
“I tell you, Eline, in the name of all that’s holy, that I shall tell Henk,” she began, with a trembling voice, and a face flushed as red as fire.