I've read it.
What did you say?
I said I've read it, Miss Trunchbull.
Read what?
Nicholas Nickleby, Miss Trunchbull.
You are lying to me, madam.
I doubt there is a single child in the entire school who has read that book.
And here you are, an unhatched shrimp sitting in the lowest form there is trying to tell me a whopping great lie like that.
Why?
Do you take me for a fool?
Well, well...
Stand up when you speak to me!
What is your name?
My name is Matilda Wormwood, Miss Trenchbull.
In that case, you must be the daughter of that man who owns Wormwood Motors.
Yes, Miss Trunchbull.
He's a crook.
A week ago, he sold me a second-hand car.
When I was driving this morning, the entire engine fell out onto the road.
The whole thing was filled with sawdust.
The man's a thief and a robber.
I'll have his skin for sausages, you see, if I don't... He's clever.
It's his business.
Clever, my foot.
Miss Honey tells me that you are meant to be clever too.
Well, madam, I don't like clever people.
They are all crooked.
You are most certainly crooked.
Before I fell out with your father, he told me some very nasty stories about the way you behaved.
But you'd better not try anything in this school, young lady.
I shall be keeping a very careful eye on you from From now on, sit down and keep quiet.
Yes, Miss Trenchbull.
I don't like small people, and that's a fact.
Small people should never be seen by anybody.
Children are like insects.
They should be got rid of as early as possible.
We get rid of insects with fly spray and by hanging up flypaper.
I have often thought of using some huge strips of sticky paper and hanging them all around the school.
You'd all get stuck to them, and that would be the end of it.
Wouldn't that be a good idea, Miss Honey?
If it's meant to be a joke, Headmistress, I don't think it's a very funny one.
You wouldn't, would you?
And it's not meant to be a joke.
My idea of a perfect school, Miss Honey, is one that has no children in it at all.
Children make me tired, they make me tired, and they make me thirsty.
At least you have had the grace to remember my water, Doug.
Thank you.
What the blight is that?
A creature in my water?
I jolly nearly swallowed a creature.
It's disgusting.
What is it?
It's a lizard.
It's a lizard.
It's a snake.
It's an alligator.
It's a baby crocodile.
Look out, Miss Trunchbull.
I'll bet it bites.
Matilda.
Matilda.
Stand up.
Stand up, you disgusting little cockroach!
I haven't done anything, Mr. Angeville.
I've never seen that slimy thing before.
Stand up at once, you filthy little maggot!
Right!
You are a vile, repulsive, repellent, malicious little brute.
You are not fit to be in this school.
You ought to be behind bars.
I shall have you drummed out of this establishment in utter disgrace.
And then, be quiet!
Then I shall make absolutely sure you are sent to a reformatory for delinquent girls for the minimum of forty years.
I didn't do it.
Oh, yes, you did.
Nobody else could have thought up a trick like that.
Your father was right to warn me about you.
You, you little maggot.
You are finished in this school, young lady.
You are finished everywhere.
I shall personally see to it that you are put away in a place where not even the crows can land their droppings on you.
You will probably never see the light of day again.
I'm telling you, I did not do it.
I've never seen a creature like that in my life.
You!
You have put a crocodile in my drinking water.
There is no worse crime in the world against the headmistress.
Now sit down and don't say a word.
Sit down.
Sit down at once.
But I'm telling you... I am telling you to shut up.
If you don't shut up at once and sit down, I shall remove my belt and let you have it with the end.
That has the buckle.
I felt myself getting more and more angry.
How dare they expel me for something I hadn't done?
