"And I say, what has she done to you, Tilly? Do hold up and answer me. How can I tell anything when you act like that? What has she done?"
"She says she'll give me a cold bath every morning," Matilda said, seeming to shrink and shiver as she said it.
"A cold bath!" exclaimed Maria.
"Yes. Oh, can't you keep me from it?"
"What has put the notion in her head?"
"She used to do it to Clarissa, she says; but I think she wants to do it to me because I don't like it. Oh, I don't like it, Maria!"
"She's too mean for anything," said Maria. "I never saw anything like her. But maybe it won't be so bad as you think, Tilly. She and Clarissa both take a cold bath every morning, you know; and they like it."
"I don't like it!" said Matilda, with the extremest accent of repugnance.
"Maybe it won't seem so bad when you've tried."
"I have tried," said Matilda, bursting into tears; "she gave me one to-day, and I don't like it; and I can't bear to have her bathe me!"