His politeness—to her a sure and distasteful sign of goodyness—riled the stormy Atom past bearing.
"Is it afraid you are?" she cried scornfully.
He raised his arm with a sudden fierce gesture and flung the cake straight into her face. It bounced off her small nose and lit with a thud on a chair. In silence they glared at each other for a minute; then he turned to Kate Kearney, thrust his hand right into her protesting mouth, and walked off.
Sheila Pat sat trembling on her chair. Twice that afternoon she had been insulted, and by the goody-goo!
During the leave-takings Sheila Pat and Stewart coldly ignored each other's existence.
In the hall at No. 35 wrath awaited them in the shape of Miss Kezia, who had just returned home from some shopping. She faced them dramatically, her tall, thin figure drawn to its full height.
"You mean to tell me that you left my house, and made an afternoon call on a friend of mine—like that?" she cried, pointing a long and disapproving forefinger at her nieces.
Molly clapped terrified hands to her waist.
Through Nell's mind there darted two lines of one of Denis's nonsense verses:—
"She stood, a tall, and bony queen,
And eyed her subjects very keen."