She saw Norah take them through the gate, and then stoop and speak
to them, while waiting for an opportunity to cross the road. They only
grew the louder and the angrier for what she said. The youngest--a girl
of eight or nine years old--flew into a child's vehement passion, cried,
screamed, and even kicked at the governess. The people in the street
stopped and laughed; some of them jestingly advised a little wholesome
correction; one woman asked Norah if she was the child's mother; another
pitied her audibly for being the child's governess. Before Magdalen
could push her way through the crowd--before her all-mastering anxiety
to help her sister had blinded her to every other consideration, and had
brought her, self-betrayed, to Norah's side--an open carriage passed
the pavement slowly, hindered in its progress by the press of vehicles
before it. An old lady seated inside heard the child's cries, recognized
Norah, and called to her immediately. The footman parted the crowd, and
the children were put into the carriage. "It's lucky I happened to pass
this way," said the old lady, beckoning contemptuously to Norah to
take her place on the front seat; "you never could manage my daughter's
children, and you never will.
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