Why couldn't the little beast have been guided back from school through the orchard, much the shorter way, instead of being brought round by the yard, so as to come upon her at a moment when she was feeling a bit short-tempered, to put it mildly?
And why had God allowed him to call her "Carrots"?
That Joan should have "put it" this way, instead of going down on her knees and thanking the Lord for having saved her from a crime, was proof of her inborn evil disposition.

In the evening was reached the culminating point.

Just before going to bed she had murdered old George the cowman.

For all practical purposes she might just as well have been successful in drowning William Augustus earlier in the day.

It seemed to be one of those things that had to be.