Page:The Rejuvenation Of Miss Semaphore.pdf/125

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down, regarding her the while with an eye of dissatisfaction, not to say of dislike.

"I'm glad you've come back, ma'am," she said, rising hastily as Prudence entered, and holding out her charge at arm's length. "This baby o' yours is the very crossest child I ever did see. I thought at first there was a pin in her clothes may be—it's a little girl, ain't it?-but I looked, and there's never a one to be found, so it's temper, so it is—and if I was you, ma'am, meaning no offence, I'd spank her well, young as she is, to take the mischief out of her. You can't begin too soon with that sort. Just look what she's done to my face!"

There certainly was a scratch on the old woman's nose.

Prudence took her sister in silence, and tried to soothe her. Augusta, she knew, was fastidious, and probably disliked being held by the snuffy old caretaker, yet she could not help considering that under the circumstances the infliction might have been borne. Still, the baby continued to yell so that the people looked in to see what was the matter. She made prolonged efforts to disengage one leg from her lengthy and cumbersome draperies, till attracted by the