Understand?'
Having on the spur of the moment devised this ingenious difficulty
for the child, who was sure to suffer in many ways from such a
conflict of authorities, Clem began to consider how she should spend
her evening. After all, Jane was too poor-spirited a victim to
afford long entertainment. Clem would have liked dealing with some
one who showed fight--some one with whom she could try savage
issue in real tooth-and-claw conflict. She had in mind a really
exquisite piece of cruelty, but it was a joy necessarily postponed
to a late hour of the night. In the meantime, it would perhaps be as
well to take a stroll, with a view of meeting a few friends as they
came away from the work-rooms. She was pondering the invention of
some long and hard task to be executed by Jane in her absence, when
a knocking at the house-door made itself heard. Clem at once went up
to see who the visitor was.
A woman in a long cloak and a showy bonnet stood on the step,
protecting herself with an umbrella from the bitter sleet which the
wind was now driving through the darkness. She said that she wished
to see Mrs. Hewett.
'Second-floor front,' replied Clem in the offhand, impertinent tone
wherewith she always signified to strangers her position in the
house.
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