I'll not have this levity and slackness, and talk
about pictures and churches. Think of mother; did she send
you out for THEM?"
"Think of mother and don't straddle across the stairs.
Let the cabman and the landlady come down, and let me go up
and choose rooms."
"I shan't."
"Harriet, are you mad?"
"If you like. But you will not come up till you have
seen the Italian."
"La signorina si sente male," said Philip, "C' e il sole."
"Poveretta!" cried the landlady and the cabman.
"Leave me alone!" said Harriet, snarling round at them.
"I don't care for the lot of you. I'm English, and neither
you'll come down nor he up till he goes for the baby."
"La prego-piano-piano-c e un' altra signorina che dorme--"
"We shall probably be arrested for brawling, Harriet.
Have you the very slightest sense of the ludicrous?"
Harriet had not; that was why she could be so powerful.
She had concocted this scene in the carriage, and nothing
should baulk her of it. To the abuse in front and the
coaxing behind she was equally indifferent. How long she
would have stood like a glorified Horatius, keeping the
staircase at both ends, was never to be known. For the
young lady, whose sleep they were disturbing, awoke and
opened her bedroom door, and came out on to the landing.
She was Miss Abbott.
Philip's first coherent feeling was one of indignation.
To be run by his mother and hectored by his sister was as
much as he could stand. The intervention of a third female
drove him suddenly beyond politeness.
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