"Do you imagine you can defy us thus?" she cried, laying an almost brutal grip upon the girl's arm, as she arose to abandon, for the time, her apparently fruitless task. "No, indeed! You will find to your cost that you have stronger wills than your own to cope with."
With these hot words, Anna Goddard swept angrily from the room, leaving her victim alone.
CHAPTER XIX.
"I WILL NEVER BREAK BREAD WITH YOU, AT ANY TABLE."
As the door closed after the angry and baffled woman, the portly form of the housekeeper entered the room from an apartment adjoining, where, as had been previously arranged between Edith and herself, she had been stationed to overhear the whole of the foregoing conversation.
"What can I do?" sighed the young girl, wearily, and lifting an anxious glance to her companion; for, in spite of her apparent calmness throughout the recent interview, it had been a terrible strain upon her already shattered nerves.
"Nothing just yet, dear, but to try and get well and strong as soon as possible," cheerfully responded Mrs. Weld.
"Did you hear how she threatened me?"