d
for nobody else. Half of this house and everything in it belongs to
Linda, and it's a mortal short time till she's of age to claim it.
Whichever is her half, that half I'll be staying in, and if ye manage so
as she's got nothing to pay me, I'll take care of her without pay till
the day comes when she can take care of me. Go to wid ye, ye triflin',
lazy, self-possessed creature. Ten years I have itched to tell ye what I
thought of ye, and now ye know it."

As Katy's rage increased, Eileen became intimidated. Like every
extremely selfish person she was a coward in her soul.

"If you refuse to go on my orders," she said, "I'll have John Gilman
issue his."

Then Katy set her left hand on her left hip, her lower jaw shot past the
upper, her doubled right fist shook precious near the tip of Eileen's
exquisite little nose.

"I'm darin' ye," she shouted. "I'm just darin' ye to send John Gilman
in the sound of my voice. If ye do, I'll tell him every mean and selfish
thing ye've done to me poor lambie since the day of the Black Shadow.
Send him to me? Holy Mither, I wish ye would! If ever I get my chance at
him, don't ye think I won't be tellin' him what he has lost, and what he
has got? And as for taking orders from him, I am taking my orders from
the person I am working for, and as I told ye before, that's Miss Linda.
Be off wid ye, and primp up while I get my supper, and mind ye this, if
ye tell Miss Linda ye didn't mean that gown for her and spoil the happy
day she has had, I won't wait for ye to send John Gilman to me; I'll
march straight to him. Put that in your cigarette and smoke it! Think
I've lost me nose as well as me sense?"

Then Katy started a triumphal march to the kitchen and cooled down by
the well-known process of slamming pots and pans for half an hour. Soon
her Irish sense of humor came to her rescue.

"Now, don't I hear myself telling Miss Linda a few days ago to kape her
temper, and to kape cool, and to go aisy. Look at the aise of me when I
got started. By gracious, wasn't I just itching to wallop her?"

Then every art that Katy possessed was bent to the consummation of
preparing a particularly delicious dinner for the night.

Linda came in softly humming something to herself about the kind of
shoes that you might wear if you chose. She had entered the high school
that morning with an unusually brilliant color. Two or three girls, who
never had noticed her before, had nodded to her that morning,