"Sophia!"
"Yes, mother."
"Shut the door."
Sophia unwillingly shut the door which she had half opened.
"Come here."
Sophia obeyed, with falling lip.
"You are deceiving me, Sophia," said Mrs. Baines, with fierce
solemnity. "Where have you been this afternoon?"
Sophia's foot was restless on the carpet behind the table. "I
haven't been anywhere," she murmured glumly.
"Have you seen young Scales?"
"Yes," said Sophia with grimness, glancing audaciously for an
instant at her mother. ("She can't kill me: She can't kill me,"
her heart muttered. And she had youth and beauty in her favour,
while her mother was only a fat middle-aged woman. "She can't kill
me," said her heart, with the trembling, cruel insolence of the
mirror-flattered child.)
"How came you to meet him?"
No answer.
"Sophia, you heard what I said!"
Still no answer. Sophia looked down at the table. ("She can't kill
me.")
"If you are going to be sullen, I shall have to suppose the
worst," said Mrs. Baines.
Sophia kept her silence.
"Of course," Mrs. Baines resumed, "if you choose to be wicked,
neither your mother nor any one else can stop you. There are
certain things I CAN do, and these I SHALL do .
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