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Carmella Commands

the family, but she realized that this would be a confession of defeat.

The two younger girls taunted her by looks instead of words. Carmella glared at them, but said nothing.

“You are not going to school this morning?” asked Maria.

“No! At eleven-thirty I must be here to talk English for father out in Greendale.”

“Then you can help me with the cooking and the housework,” said Maria.

And here was a second triumph for the sisters. They were chuckling happily as they left for school.

Carmella helped, but at eleven went to her room to change her dress for the day’s real work. She added an ornament or two, having read somewhere that appearance was a factor in business success.

To her surprise, and slightly to her disappointment, Mr. Barrington himself did not appear. Dixon halted the car in front of the gate precisely at eleven-thirty, bringing Mr. Hastings. Tommaso had reached the house from a small job in the city a few minutes before.

Carmella liked the big, jovial Mr. Barrington, in spite of the fact that she felt that he talked down to her. Moreover, in some half-conscious fashion, she felt that she wanted him to know her father. Somehow, in ways she could not foresee, it might help Tommaso to get on.

Mr. Hastings she neither liked nor trusted. Her heart sank at the possibility that he would say some-

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