Page:Emily Climbs.pdf/114

 mean,’ I said—quite haughtily, for I felt I was not being treated fairly.

“‘Em’ly, you sat in the corner of the pew yesterday just to keep me out of it. did you do it?”’ [sic]

“I looked down at Aunt Ruth—I am taller than she is now and I can do it. She doesn’t like it, either. I was angry and I I had a little of the Murray look on my face. The whole thing seemed so contemptible to be making a fuss over.

“‘If I did it to keep you out of it, isn’t that ?’ I said as contemptuously as I felt. I picked up my book-bag and stalked to the door. There I stopped. It occurred to me that, whatever the Murrays might or might not do, I was not behaving as a Starr should. Father wouldn’t have approved of my behaviour. So I turned and said, very politely,

“‘I should not have spoken like that, Aunt Ruth, and I beg your pardon. I didn’t mean anything by sitting in the corner. It was just because I happened to go into the pew first. I didn’t know you preferred the corner.’

“Perhaps I overdid the politeness. At any rate, my apology only seemed to irritate Aunt Ruth the more. She sniffed and said,

“‘I will forgive you this time, but don’t let it happen again. Of course I didn’t expect you would tell me your reason. You are too sly for that.’

“Aunt Ruth, Aunt Ruth! If you keep on calling me sly you'll drive me into being sly in reality and watch out. If I choose to be sly I can twist you round my finger! It’s only because I’m straightforward that you can manage me at all.

“I have to go to bed every night at nine o’clock—‘people who are threatened with consumption require a great deal of sleep.’ When I come from school there are chores to be done and I must study in the evenings. So I haven’t a moment of time for writing anything. I know Aunt Elizabeth and Aunt Ruth have had a conference on the subject. But I to write. So I get