Mrs. Dolman was coming out of the kitchen garden.  She had on her invariable mushroom hat, her face was much flushed with exercise, and she was by no means in the best of humors.

“Diana,” she said, “what are you doing?  Come here this minute.”

“No, I won’t,” answered Diana.  She backed before the good lady, dancing and skipping and flinging her fat arms over her head.  “Oh, it’s ’licious out!” she said:  “I won’t come.  I has only got half an hour; I hasn’t any time; I won’t come.”

Mrs. Dolman began to run after her, which fact excited the little girl very much.  She instantly raced away, and the stout lady had to follow her, panting and puffing.

“Diana, you are a dreadfully naughty little girl; if I catch you up, won’t I punish you!” panted Mrs. Dolman.

“I don’t care,” called back Diana.  “You can’t catch me up; you is fat; you can’t wun.  See, let’s have a wace—­let’s find out who’ll be at the end of the walk first.  Now then, one, two, three, and away!  Go it, Aunt Jane!  Now, then, k’ick, Aunt Jane; k’ick!”

Mrs. Dolman’s rage at this great impertinence made her almost speechless.  She flew after Diana, but would have had little or no chance of catching her, if the child had not suddenly tripped up against a stone and measured her full length on the ground.  Before she could rise again Mrs. Dolman had caught her by the shoulder, and, as a preliminary measure, began to shake her violently.

“You are a bad little thing,” she said.  “Why didn’t you come to me when I called you?”

“’Cos I didn’t want to, Aunt Jane.”

“But do you know that you have got to obey me, miss?  What would your mother say?”

“You isn’t to dare to talk of mother to me,” answered Diana.

“Highty-tighty!  I’m not to dare.  Do you suppose, Diana, that I will allow a little child like you to defy me in my own house?”

“What’s defy?” asked Diana.

“You are defying me now; you are a very naughty little girl, and I shall punish you.”

“I don’t care,” said Diana, tossing her head.  “I was sent out by Miss Wamsay ’cos I found the schoolroom too hot and I was sleepy.  I can’t obey you and Miss Wamsay both at the same time, can I?  I did not come to you ’cos I don’t like you.”

“That’s a pretty thing to say to your own aunt.  Come, miss, I shall punish you immediately.”

“Oh, you’s going to lock me up in the punishment woom.  I don’t care one bit for that,” said Diana.  “I’ll just lie on the floor and curl up like a puppy and go to s’eep.  I dweam beautiful when I s’eep.  I dweam that you is shotted, and that I is back again in the dear old garden at home with all the pets; and that Rub-a-Dub is alive again.  I dweam that you is shotted down dead, and you can do no more harm, and——­”

But Diana could not proceed any further.  Mrs. Dolman, in her wild indignation, had lifted her in her arms, clapped her hand over her mouth, and carried her bodily into the study, where Mr. Dolman was preparing his sermon.