rash impetuosity.

And on the few occasions in the year that Barbara visited the boy--it
was not so easy for her to come now that the Veyergangs lived in their
country house all the year round--she could see for herself how
well-cared-for and clean he was, and how strictly he was kept. From the
time she got there to the time she left, she heard nothing except how
difficult it was to straighten out all the tinsmith's dents, all that
had been wrongly and improperly dealt with from the very first,
especially his obstinate temper! Now he really could walk quite a good
way, but he would do nothing but crawl, and so quickly, that no sooner
had she, Mrs. Holman, taken her eyes off him than he might be anywhere,
either at the saucepans and pots, or in the water-bucket, or else at the
plummets on the bell. And he upset things, and got himself in a mess,
wherever he went; yesterday the cat's food lay all over the floor! So
now she had hung the birch-rod low down on the wall, so that it might be
before his eyes; for it was necessary to frighten him, and vigilance and
punishment must positively be used. And Barbara must know herself, that
it wasn't so easy to manage other people's children, and especially such
a stray creature, come into the world in such a manner!

It was all just, as Barbara was obliged to acknowledge to herself, from
beginning to end, however much it might sting her, and therefore she was
always in a hurry to get away again.

It cannot be denied that she learnt something from it too, namely, what
she, on her side, might have reason and right to say to Mrs. Veyergang
about all the toil she had had with her two, if they ever had a
difference.