“Oh, do not ask me, do not ask me,” she said at length. “I am sure he could not have intended to hurt Miss Lucy, but, O Mrs Norton, he has cut off her head, and I, when I saw what he had done, boxed his ears. I am so very sorry, but I did not see how much he had hurt himself.”
Mrs Norton gave a look at Norman, which ought to have made him ashamed of what he had done.
His answer betrayed the evil spirit which had prompted him to do the deed.
“You should not have had a pretty doll to play with, while I have only an empty football,” he said, in the growling muttering way in which he too often spoke.
“Sit down there, your heart must be a very bad one, to let you indulge in such a feeling,” said Mrs Norton, placing Norman in the large chair, which stood in his room.
Taking Fanny’s hand, she led her downstairs. At first, Mrs Norton said she should leave the doll and knife on the ground to show Mrs Leslie and her mamma how he had behaved, but Fanny entreated her not to do so, and putting the knife back into the cabinet, she took up her doll, over which her tears fell fast, while she tried to replace its head.
“We will try and mend the doll, Fanny,” said Mrs Norton, “but I am afraid an ugly mark must always remain, and though we may succeed in putting on its head, nothing can excuse your brother’s behaviour.”
“Oh, but he is very young, pleaded Fanny,” and it will make granny and mamma, and I am afraid papa also so angry with him, but pray, do not tell them if you can help it. And I ought to have remembered what a little boy he is—and I should not have lost my temper and hit him—it was very naughty in me. “Oh dear, oh dear, how sorry I am,” and Fanny again, gave way to her tears.
Mrs Norton acknowledged that Fanny should not have lost her temper, at the same time she tried to comfort her.
Mrs Norton then told Fanny, that she would take the doll home to try and fix on its head.