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to beg, and not to live here with gentlemen's children like us, and
eat the same meals we do, and wear clothes at our mama's expense. Now,
I'll teach you to rummage my bookshelves: for they are mine; all the
house belongs to me, or will do in a few years. Go and stand by the
door, out of the way of the mirror and the windows.'
I did so, not at first aware what was his intention; but when I saw
him lift and poise the book and stand in act to hurl it, I
instinctively started aside with a cry of alarm: not soon enough,
however; the volume was flung, it hit me, and I fell, striking my head
against the door and cutting it. The cut bled, the pain was sharp:
my terror had passed its climax; other feelings succeeded.
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'Wicked and cruel boy!' I said. 'You are like a murderer- you are
like a slave-driver- you are like the Roman emperors!'
I had read Goldsmith's History of Rome, and had formed my opinion
of Nero, Caligula, etc. Also I had drawn parallels in silence, which I
never thought thus to have declared aloud.
'What! what!' he cried. 'Did she say that to me? Did you hear
her, Eliza and Georgiana? Won't I tell mama? but first-'
He ran headlong at me: I felt him grasp my hair and my shoulder: he
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