Gipsy leaped lightly from her horse, and resigning him to Jupiter, ran up the steps, and encountered the purple face and blazing eyes of her angry guardian.
"Good-evening, Guardy!" was her salute. "Nice night!"
"Stop!" said the squire, catching her by the arm as she was about to run past—"stop! I've an account to settle with you, my lady!"
"Oh, any time at your convenience, Squire Erliston; I'll not be hard on you."
"Silence, Miss Impertinence! You have the impudence of Satan to face me after what you have done!"
"Now, Guardy, don't be unreasonable, but look at the matter in its proper light. All fashionable people paint."
"Silence!" exclaimed the squire, in a voice hoarse with rage. "Silence! before I brain you, you little villain! You have made me the laughing-stock of the country for miles around. I can never dare to show my face after what has occurred, without being jeered and mocked at. And all through you—the creature of my bounty—the miserable little wretch who would have been a common street-beggar if I had not clothed, and fed, and educated you!—through you, you brazen-faced, good-for-nothing little pauper, whom I would have kicked out long ago to the workhouse where you belong, if I had not feared the opinion of the world. Begone from my sight, before I am tempted to brain you!"
His face was perfectly livid with the storm of passion into which he had wrought himself. As he ceased, he raised his hand and brutally struck her a blow that sent her reeling across the room.
Then all the demon in her fiery nature was aroused. With the shriek of a wounded panther, she leaped toward him, with clenched hands, blazing eyes, hard-ground teeth, ghastly face, convulsed brow, and eyes that fairly scintillated sparks of fire. She looked a perfect little fiend, as she glared upon him, quivering in every nerve with frenzied passion.
The old sinner drew back appalled, frightened into calmness by that dark, fierce face. For a moment he expected she would spring at his throat like a tigress and strangle him. But, with a long, wild cry, she clasped her hands above her head, and fled swiftly up-stairs, disappearing like some elfin sprite in the darkness beyond.