Page:Carroll Rankin--Dandelion Cottage.djvu/177

 Rh  warned Bettie, in a pleading whisper. "The doorbell sounds as if she doesn't like us very well."

But the visitor did not wait to be asked to come in. The moment Jean turned the key the door was flung open and Mrs. Milligan brushed past the astonished quartette and sailed into the parlour, where she seated herself bolt upright on the cosey corner.

"I'd like to know," demanded Mrs. Milligan, in a hard, cold tone that fell unpleasantly on the cottagers' ears, "if you consider it ladylike for four great overgrown girls to pitch into one poor innocent little child and a helpless baby? Your conduct yesterday, was simply outrageous. You might have injured those children for life or even broken the baby's back."

"Broken the baby's back!" gasped Bettie, in honest amazement. "Why, I simply lifted him with my two hands and set him just outside the door—I never was rough with any baby in all my life."