As Willems was looking at Joanna her upper lip was drawn up on one side, giving to her melancholy face a vicious expression altogether new to his experience.
He stepped back in his surprise.
"Oh! You great man!" she said distinctly, but in a voice that was hardly above a whisper.
Those words, and still more her tone, stunned him as if somebody had fired a gun close to his ear.

He stared back at her stupidly.
"Oh! you great man!" she repeated slowly, glancing right and left as if meditating a sudden escape.

"And you think that I am going to starve with you.

You are nobody now.

You think my mamma and Leonard would let me go away?
And with you! With you," she repeated scornfully, raising her voice, which woke up the child and caused it to whimper feebly.
"Joanna!" exclaimed Willems.
"Do not speak to me.