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I was spared the trouble of answering, for Bessie seereat a hurry to listen to explanations; she hauled me to the

washstand, inflicted a merciless, but happily brief scrub on my face

and hands with soap, water, and a coarse towel; disciplined my head

with a bristly brush, denuded

o down directly, as I was

wanted in the breakfast-room

I would have asked anted me: I would have demanded if Mrs

Reed was there; but Bessie was already gone, and had closed the

nursery-door upon me I slowly descended For nearly three months,

I had never been called to Mrs Reed's presence; restricted so long

to the nursery, the breakfast, dining, and drawing-rooions, on which it dismayed me to intrude

I now stood in the empty hall; before me was the breakfast-roo What a endered of unjust punishment, made of

me in those days! I feared to return to the nursery, and feared to

go forward to the parlour; tenof the breakfast-room bell decided

me; I MUST enter

"Who could want me?" I asked inwardly, as with both hands I turned

the stiff door-handle, which, for a second or two, resisted my