Explore "Number Three, Winifred Place" by Agnes Giberne on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"ALWAYS wasting your time up in that room! I tell you what it is, Bertha,-I won't have you go on so any longer, and that's a fact. I don't mean to have everything in the house go to wrack and ruin for want of proper care, just because you haven't eyes nor ears for anybody except that child. It is all very well to pay proper attention, and I'm as sorry for her as the rest of you, but I just 'won't' have you running in every half-hour to dawdle and gossip. You've got your work to do, and I expect to have it done,-if not, you'd best look out for a home elsewhere, and the sooner the better. Look at the dirt left in this corner. I never knew anybody so careless before. There's no manner of dependence to be put upon you."
Mrs. Burrell was, as she would herself have described it, "out of sorts" that morning; and she found some relief in venting her uncomfortable sensations thus. The present condition of things affected her peace of mind; and since no one could be lawfully blamed for their said condition, she took refuge in blaming Bertha with undue severity for certain unwonted, touches of neglect.