Molly had trodden purely by accident on the pug; and her aunt said that
the one thing with which she had no patience was cruelty to
animals--whereas the child was passionately fond of animals. Again, on
that same day, Molly fell into a very particularly dirty little pond
near the cowshed at the farm. Mary, the nurse, no doubt was the
sufferer, and she said that she did not suppose that black nurses minded
being covered with muck--how should they?--and she supposed she must be
treated as if she were a negro herself, but time would show whether she
were a black slave or an Englishwoman with a house of her own which she
could have now if she liked for the asking. While Mary spoke she pushed
and pulled, and, in general treated Molly's small person as something
unpleasant, and to be kept at a distance. Once clean and dressed again,
Molly sat down quite quietly to consider the ways and means of getting
to France, with the result already told.

Several years passed after that, in which Mrs. Carteret did by Molly, as
by every one else, all the duties that were quite obviously evident to
her, and did not go about seeking for any fanciful ones. And Molly grew
up, sometimes happy, and sometimes not, saying sometimes the things she
really meant when she was in a temper, and acquiescing in Mrs.
Carteret's explanation that she had not meant them when she had regained
her self-control.

Until Molly was between fifteen and sixteen, Mrs. Carteret was able to
keep to her optimism as to their mutual relations.

"The child is, of course, very backward. I tried to think it was want of
education, but I've come to see it's of no use to expect to make Molly
an interesting or agreeable woman; and very plain, of course, she must
be. But, you know, plenty of plain, uninteresting women have very fairly