“You dare me to?”

“Yes, you damn beast, to say I’m no better than a street-walker!”

“Don’t you call me names.”

“I shall call you what I please, you dirty upstart, to put yourself on a level with ladies like us!  We always said you was common.”

“What—­what’s it you dared me to say?” asked Miss Impett breathlessly, as her face went livid.

“Don’t—­don’t say it,” pleaded Miss Allen; but her interference was ineffectual.

“That I picked up gentlemen in evening dress,” bawled Miss Potter.  “Say it:  say it:  say it!  I dare you!”

“I do say it.  I’ll tell everyone.  I’ve watched you pick up gentlemen in—­”

She got no further.  Miss Potter struck her in the mouth.

“You beast!” cried Miss Impett.

Miss Potter struck her again.

“You beast:  you coward!” yelled Miss Impett.

“It’s you who’s the coward, ’cause you don’t hit me.  Take that and that,” screamed Miss Potter, as she hit the other again and again.  “And if you say any more, I’ll pull your hair out.”

“I’m not a coward; I’m not a coward!” wept Miss Impett.  “And you know it.”

“I know it!”

“If anything, it’s you who’s the coward.”

“Say it again,” threatened Miss Potter, as she raised her fist, while hate gleamed in her eyes.

“Yes, I do say it again.  You are a coward; you hit me, and you know I can’t hit you back because you’re going to have a baby.”

There was a pause.  Miss Potter’s face went white; she raised her hand as if to strike Miss Impett, but as the latter stared her in the eyes, the other girl flinched.  Then, tears came into Miss Potter’s eyes as she faltered: 

“Oh!  Oh, you story!”

“Story! story!” began Miss Impett, but was at once interrupted by pacific Miss Allen.

“Ssh! ssh!” she cried fearfully.

“I shan’t,” answered Miss Impett.

“You must,” commanded Miss Allen under her breath.  Keeves might hear.”

“What if she does!  As likely as not she herself’s in the way,” said Miss Potter.

Mavis, who had been trying not to listen to the previous conversation, felt both hot and cold at the same time.  The blood rushed to her head.  The next moment she sprang out of bed.

“How dare you, how dare you say that?” she cried, her eyes all ablaze.

“Say what?” asked Miss Potter innocently.

“That.  I won’t foul my lips by repeating it.  How dare you say it?  How dare you say that you didn’t say it?”

“Well, you shouldn’t listen,” remarked Miss Potter sullenly.

Mavis advanced menacingly to the side of the girl’s bed.

“If you think you can insult me like that, you’re mistaken,” said Mavis, with icy calmness, the while she trembled in every limb.

“Haven’t you been through Orgles’s hands?” asked Miss Potter.

“No, I have not.  I say again, how dare you accuse me of that?”