'You've been helped once to meat,' said Miss Brass, summing up the

facts; 'you have had as much as you can eat, you're asked if you want

any more, and you answer, 'no!' Then don't you ever go and say you

were allowanced, mind that.'

With those words, Miss Sally put the meat away and locked the safe,

and then drawing near to the small servant, overlooked her while she

finished the potatoes.

It was plain that some extraordinary grudge was working in Miss

Brass's gentle breast, and that it was that which impelled her, without

the smallest present cause, to rap the child with the blade of the

knife, now on her hand, now on her head, and now on her back, as if

she found it quite impossible to stand so close to her without

administering a few slight knocks. But Mr Swiveller was not a little

surprised to see his fellow-clerk, after walking slowly backwards

towards the door, as if she were trying to withdraw herself from the

room but could not accomplish it, dart suddenly forward, and falling

on the small servant give her some hard blows with her clenched

hand. The victim cried, but in a subdued manner as if she feared to

raise her voice, and Miss Sally, comforting herself with a pinch of

snuff, ascended the stairs, just as Richard had safely reached the

office.

The Old Curiosity Shop