At present I am capable of managing my own affairs.

I shall come and go as I like." The would-be firm voice wavered wrathed badly toward the end of this defiance, but the widely opened eyes were still shining and as she turned to enter the house, Esther caught a look in them, a gleam of something very like hate.
"So that is what comes of asking," said Esther sombrely.
She did not follow her step-mother into the house but remained for a while on the veranda, thinking.

It was clearly useless to reopen the subject of the prescription.

For some reason Mrs.Coombe regarded it as a fetish.

She would not trust it to Taylor's.