A Little Mother to the Others Part 23

"You are defying me now; you are a very naughty little girl, and I shall punish you."

"I don't care," said Diana, tossing her head. "I was sent out by Miss Wamsay 'cos I found the schoolroom too hot and I was sleepy. I can't obey you and Miss Wamsay both at the same time, can I? I did not come to you 'cos I don't like you."

"That's a pretty thing to say to your own aunt. Come, miss, I shall punish you immediately."

"Oh, you's going to lock me up in the punishment woom. I don't care one bit for that," said Diana. "I'll just lie on the floor and curl up like a puppy and go to s'eep. I dweam beautiful when I s'eep. I dweam that you is shotted, and that I is back again in the dear old garden at home with all the pets; and that Rub-a-Dub is alive again. I dweam that you is shotted down dead, and you can do no more harm, and----"

But Diana could not proceed any further. Mrs. Dolman, in her wild indignation, had lifted her in her arms, clapped her hand over her mouth, and carried her bodily into the study, where Mr. Dolman was preparing his sermon.

"William," said his wife, "I am really very sorry to disturb you, but I must ask you to come to my a.s.sistance."

"In what way, Jane?" he said. He pushed his spectacles, as his invariable habit was, high up on the middle of his forehead, and looked from his wife to Diana, and from Diana back again to his wife.

"Hi, Diana! is that you? Why, what is the matter, little one?" he said.

"You are not to speak to this very naughty little girl," said Mrs.

Dolman. "I am sorry to trouble you, William, but matters have come to a crisis, and if you don't support your wife on this occasion, I really do not know what will happen."

"But, my dear Jane, do you mean to say that little Diana----"

"Little Diana!" repeated Mrs. Dolman. "She is quite a monster, I can tell you--a monster of ingrat.i.tude, wickedness, and rudeness, and I don't see how we can keep her any longer with our own children."

"But I am afraid, my dear wife, we cannot get David Delaney back now; he must have reached the Himalayas by this time."

"Poor fellow!" said Mrs. Dolman, "I pity him for being the father of such a very bad little girl."

"I aren't bad," cried Diana. "If you say any more, naughty woman, I'll slap 'oo."

Mrs. Dolman thought it best to let Diana slide down on the floor.

The moment the little girl found her feet she rushed up to her Uncle Dolman.

"I like you, old man," she said; "you isn't half a bad sort. I'll stay with you. P'ease, Aunt Jane, punish me by letting me stay with Uncle William. I'll just sit on the floor curled up, and maybe I'll dwop as'eep, and have my nice dweams about the time when you is shotted, and I'm back again in the old garden with all my darlin', dear, sweet pets. I'll dweam, p'waps, that we is having funerals in the garden and we is awfu' happy, and you is shotted down dead. Let me stay with Uncle William, Aunt Jane."

"Now, you see what kind of child she is, William," said Mrs. Dolman.

"You have heard her with your own ears--she absolutely threatens _me_.

Oh, I cannot name what she says; it is so shocking. I never came across such a terribly bad little girl. William, I must insist here and now on your chastising her."

"In what way?" said Mr. Dolman. "I am very busy, my dear Jane, over my sermon. Could it not be postponed, or could not you, my dear?"

"No, William, I could not, for the dark room is not bad enough for this naughty little girl. She must be whipped, and you must do it.

Fetch the birch rod."

"But really," said Mr. Dolman, looking terribly distressed, "you know I don't approve of corporal punishment, my dear."

"No more do I, except in extreme cases, but this is one. William, I insist on your whipping this very bad little girl."

"I don't care if you whip me," said Diana. She stood bolt upright now, but her round, flushed little face began perceptibly to pale.

Mr. Dolman looked at her attentively, then he glanced at his wife, and then at the ma.n.u.script which lay on his desk. He always hated writing his sermons, and, truth to tell, did not write at all good ones; but on this special morning his ideas seemed to come a little more rapidly than usual--now, of course, he had lost every thought, and the sermon was ruined. Besides, he was a kind-hearted man. He thought Diana a very handsome little fury, and was rather amused with her than otherwise. Had she been left alone with him, he would not have taken the least notice of her defiant words. He would have said to himself, "She is but a baby, and if I take no notice she will soon cease to talk in this very silly manner."

But alas! there was little doubt that Uncle William was very much afraid of Aunt Jane, and when Aunt Jane dared him to produce the birch rod, there was nothing whatever for it but to comply. He rose and walked slowly and very unwillingly across the room. He unlocked the door of a big cupboard in the wall, and, poking in his large, soft, flabby hand, presently produced what looked in Diana's eyes a very terrible instrument. It was a rod, clean, slender, and with, as she afterwards expressed it, _temper_ all over it. It flashed through her little mind by and by that, if she could really secure this rod, it might make a better bow even than the one which she and Apollo had hidden in the wood, but she had little time to think of any future use for the birch rod at this awful moment. The terrible instrument in Uncle William's flabby hand was carried across the room. When she saw it approaching her vicinity she uttered a piercing shriek and hid herself under the table.

"Come, come; none of this nonsense!" said Mrs. Dolman. "Punished you shall be. You must be made to understand that you are to respect your elders. Now, then, William, fetch that child out."

"Diana, my dear, you are a very naughty little girl; come here," said Mr. Dolman.

Diana would not have minded in the least defying Aunt Jane, but there was something in Uncle William's slow tones, particularly in a sort of regret which seemed to tremble in his voice, and which Diana felt without understanding, which forced her to obey. She scrambled slowly out, her hair tumbled over her forehead, her lower lip drooping.

"Suppose I have a little talk with her, Jane; suppose she says she is sorry and never does it again," said Mr. Dolman.

"Oh, yes, yes, Uncle William!" said Diana, really terrified for the first time in her life. "Yes, I's sossy--I's awfu' sossy, Aunt Jane.

It's all wight now, Aunt Jane; Diana's sossy."

"You shall be a great deal more sorry before I have done with you,"

said Mrs. Dolman, who had no idea of letting the culprit off. "Now, then, William, do your duty."

"But it's all wight," said Diana, gazing with puzzled eyes up into her aunt's face. "I's been a bad girl, but I's sossy; it's all wight, I say. Naughty wod, go 'way, naughty wod."

She tried to push the rod out of Mr. Dolman's hand.

"Really, Jane, she is only five years old, and--and a poor little orphan, you know."

"Yes," said Diana eagerly, "I's a poor orphan, only a baby, five years old, awfu' young, and I's sossy, and it's all wight now. Go 'way, Aunt Jane; go 'way, naughty Aunt Jane; I's sossy."

"William," said Mrs. Dolman, "if you refuse to give that child the necessary punishment which is to make her a Christian character, I shall simply wash my hands of her. Now, then, miss, get on my lap.

William, do your duty."

Poor Mr. Dolman, pale to the very lips, was forced to comply. Down went the rod on the fat little form--shriek after shriek uttered Diana. At last, more from terror than pain, she lay quiet on Mrs.

Dolman's knee. The moment she did so, Mr. Dolman threw the rod on the floor.

"It's a horrid business," he said. "I hate corporal punishment. We have hurt the child. Here, give her to me."

"Nonsense, William! She is only pretending."

But this was not the case. The fright, joined to the state of excitement and heat which she had been previously in, proved too much for the defiant little spirit, and Diana had really fainted.

Mrs. Dolman was frightened now, and rushed for cold water. She bathed the child's forehead, and soon had the satisfaction of seeing her coming to again.

There was not a word of defiance from Diana now, and not a single utterance of reproach, but when she looked at Mrs. Dolman there was an expression in her black eyes from which this lady absolutely recoiled.

"Uncle William, I's hurted awfu'," whispered Diana. "Let me lie in your arms, p'ease, Uncle William."

And so she did for the rest of the morning, and the sermon never got written.

CHAPTER XIV.