Page:The White Peacock, Lawrence, 1911.djvu/485

Rh had flushed at his sneer, when he quoted for the child its mother’s dictum.

“And you’re very naughty!” preached Gertie, turning her back disdainfully on her father.

“Is that what the parson’s been telling you?” he asked, a grain of amusement still in his bitterness.

“No it isn’t!” retorted the youngster. “If you want to know you should go and listen for yourself. Everybody that goes to church looks nice——” she glanced at her mother and at herself, pruning herself proudly, “—and God loves them,” she added. She assumed a sanctified expression, and continued after a little thought: “Because they look nice and are meek.”

“What!” exclaimed Meg, laughing, glancing with secret pride at me.

“Because they’re meek!” repeated Gertie, with a superior little smile of knowledge.

“You’re off the mark this time,” said George.

“No, I’m not, am I Mam? Isn’t it right Mam? ‘The meek shall inevit the erf’?”

Meg was too much amused to answer.

“The meek shall have herrings on earth,” mocked the father, also amused. His daughter looked dubiously at him. She smelled impropriety.

“It’s not, Mam, is it?” she asked, turning to her mother. Meg laughed.

“The meek shall have herrings on earth,” repeated George with soft banter.

“No it’s not Mam, is it?” cried the child in real distress.

“Tell your father he’s always teaching you something wrong,” answered Meg.