FROM THE LIFE
seemed uncomfortable in it. "I'll just tell them you're here," he said.
He left her there and went out to the stairs. Millie was coming down to see who had rung. "Well," she cried from a landing above him as he ascended resolutely, "will you tell us what you think you're doing with that Lizzie Janes?"
He caught her by the arm. He said in a voice that was new to her: "I've brought her to call on mother. Tell her she's here."
"You've brought her to—! I'll do nothing of the kind. You can just take her away again. I don't want her, and they don't want her." She had begun to raise her voice, with the evident intention of letting any one hear who would. "If she thinks she can—"
"That's enough!" He stopped her angrily, with his hand over her mouth. "You ought to be—"
She struggled with him, striking his hand away. "How dare you! If you think that Lizzie Janes—"
He was afraid that Alicia might hear it. He grabbed her up roughly and began to carry her up-stairs, fighting with him, furious at the indignity—for he had caught her where he could, with no respect for her body or her clothes. No one, in years, had dared to lay hands on her, no matter what she did; the sanctity of her fastidious young person was an inviolable right to her; and Wat's assault upon it was brutal to her, degrading, atrocious.
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