MISS SPAULDING: "And you know you liked him very much."

MISS REED: "I won't let you say that, Nettie Spaulding. I DIDN'T
like him. I respected and admired him; but I didn't LIKE him. He
will come near me; but if he does he has to begin by--by--Let me see,
what shall I make him begin by doing?" She casts up her eyes for
inspiration while she leans forward over the register. "Yes, I will!
He has got to begin by taking that money!"

MISS SPAULDING: "Ethel, you wouldn't put that affront upon a
sensitive and high-spirited man!"

MISS REED: "Wouldn't I? You wait and SEE, Miss Spaulding! He shall
take the money, and he shall sign a receipt for it. I'll draw up the
receipt now, so as to have it ready, and I shall ask him to sign it
the very moment he enters this door--the very instant!" She takes a
portfolio from the table near her, without rising, and writes:
"'Received from Miss Ethel Reed one hundred and twenty-five dollars,
in full, for twenty-five lessons in oil-painting.' There--when Mr.
Oliver Ransom has signed this little document he may begin to talk;
not before!" She leans back in her chair with an air of pitiless
determination.

MISS SPAULDING: "But, Ethel, you don't mean to make him take money
for the lessons he gave you after he told you you couldn't learn
anything?"

MISS REED, after a moment's pause: "Yes, I do. This is to punish
him. I don't wish for justice now; I wish for vengeance! At first I
would have compromised on the six lessons, or on none at all, if he