Now, had Capitola run there is little doubt but that, in the
blindness of his fury, he would have caught and beat her then and
there. But Cap saw him coming, drew up her tiny form, folded her
arms and looked him directly in the face.
This stopped him; but, like a mettlesome old horse suddenly pulled
up in full career, he stamped and reared and plunged with fury, and
foamed and spluttered and stuttered before he could get words out.
"What do you mean, you vixen, by standing there and popping your
great eyes out at me? Are you going to bite, you tigress? What do
you mean by facing me at all?" he roared, shaking his fist within an
inch of Capitola's little pug nose.
"I am here because you sent for me, sir," was Cap's unanswerable
rejoinder.
"Here because I sent for you! humph! humph! humph! and come dancing
and smiling into my room as if you had not kept me awake all the
live-long night--yes, driven me within an inch of brain fever! Not
that I cared for you, you limb of Old Nick! not that I cared for
you, except to wish with all my heart and soul that something or
other had happened to you, you vagrant! Where did you spend the
night, you lunatic?"
"At the old Hidden House, where I went to make a call on my new
neighbor, Miss Day, and where I was caught in the storm."
"I wish to heaven you had been caught in a man-trap and had all your
limbs broken, you--you--you--Oh!" ejaculated Old Hurricane, turning
short and trotting up and down the room.
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