She saw it all in one
glance, and she snatched the card out of my hand.
"From H----!" she read. "Take them out, Hannah, and throw
them away. No, don't do that. Put them on the Servant's table."
Then, when the door had closed, she turned to me. "Just one more
ridiculous Episode of this kind, Barbara," she said, "and you go
back to school--Xmas or no Xmas."
I will say this. If she had shown the faintest softness,
I'd have told her the whole thing. But she did not. She looked
exactly as gentle as a macadam pavment. I am one who has to be
handled with Gentleness. A kind word will do anything with me,
but harsh treatment only makes me determined. I then become
inflexable as iron.
That is what happened then. Mother took the wrong course
and threatened, which as I have stated is fatal, as far as I am
concerned. I refused to yeild an inch, and it ended in my having
my dinner in my room, and mother threatening to keep me home
from the Party the next night. It was not a threat, if she had
only known it.
But when the next day went by, with no more flowers, and
nothing aparently wrong except that mother was very dignafied
with me, I began to feel better.
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