Her glance traveled from girl to girl, and she curled her lip contemptuously as her eye rested on Grace and Anne.

The other diggers looked sheepishly at Julia, who stood eyeing them in a way that made them feel "too foolish for anything," as one of them afterwards expressed it.
"Why don't you answer me, little girls ?" asked Julia.

"Has the kitty stolen your tongue ?" This was too much for Eleanor.
"How dare you speak to us in that manner and treat us as though we were children ?" she burst forth.

"What business is it of yours why we are here?
Do you own this property ?" "Mercy, no," replied Julia composedly.

"Do you ?" "No," replied Eleanor a trifle less rudely, "but we have as much right here as you have." "Granted," replied Julia calmly.