"
"Yes, miss," said the boy, who was off like a flying Mercury.
Capitola threw herself into her chair to spend the slow hours until
the boy's return as well as her fierce impatience and forced
inaction would permit.
At tea time she was summoned; but excused herself from going below
upon the plea of indisposition.
"Which is perfectly true," she said to herself, "since I am utterly
indisposed to go. And besides, I have sworn never again to sit at
the same table with my cousins, until for the wrongs done me I have
received ample satisfaction."
CHAPTER XVII.
CAPITOLA CAPS THE CLIMAX.
Oh! when she's angry, she is keen and shrewd
She was a vixen when she went to school;
And though she is but little she is fierce.
--SHAKESPEARE
It was quite late in the evening when Jem, her messenger, returned.
"Have you an answer?" she impetuously demanded, rising to meet him
as he entered.
"Yes, miss, here it is," replied the boy, handing a neatly folded,
highly perfumed little note.
"Go," said Cap, curtly, as she received it.
And when the boy had bowed and withdrawn, she threw herself into a
chair, and with little respect for the pretty device of the pierced
heart with which the note was sealed, she tore it open and devoured
its contents.
Why did Capitola's cheeks and lips blanch white as death? Why did
her eyes contract and glitter like stilettoes? Why was her breath
drawn hard and laboriously through clenched teeth and livid lips?
That note was couched in the most insulting terms.
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