United States or New Zealand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Then turning the slender little figure carefully about, "Gwendolyn, lovie, Jane thinks you'd better give the idear up." So it was true! Jane who was happiest when standing in opposition to others; who was certain to differ if a difference was possible Jane had borne it out! Moreover, she was frightened! For Gwendolyn was leaning against the nurse. And she could feel her shaking!
"Rich little girls don't hike along the streets like common poor little girls. So jump in, and pretend you're a Queen, and have a grand ride " Now all of a sudden a terrible inclination to obey seized Gwendolyn. There yawned that door here burned those reddish eyes, compelling her forward into a dreaded grasp She screamed, covering her face.
Then she led her to the lounge which Gwendolyn was piling high with delicately embroidered and ruffled underwear. 'I did not know whether you would like your sets to be of different patterns or not, but Belle has such a horror of having any two alike that I ventured to think that your tastes would agree.
'And did you see her, said Gwendolyn, 'when I happened to mention that our church was always shut up in the summer because so many people were out of the city? She just turned those splendid eyes of hers on me until I actually felt my moral stature shrivelling, and asked, "What about the people in the city? don't they have to go on living?" 'She is plucky, though, said Russell admiringly.
"In the whole, whole big world?" went on Gwendolyn to herself rather than to her nurse. She was not looking at the table, but toward a curtained window, and the gray eyes had a tender faraway expression. There was a faint conventional pattern in the brocade of the heavy hangings. It suggested trees with graceful down-growing boughs. She clasped her hands.
"Thomas," said Miss Royle, as she folded her napkin and rustled to her feet, "you may call up the Riding School and say that Miss Gwendolyn will not ride to-day." "Yes, ma'am." "And, Jane, you may go out for the morning. I shall stay here." "Thanks," acknowledged Jane, in a tone quite unusual for her. She did not rise, however, but waited, striving to catch Thomas's eye.
And the next moment Gwendolyn was unpleasantly reminded of times in the nursery, times when, Miss Royle and Jane disagreeing about her, each pulled at an arm and quarreled. For here was the nurse, tugging one direction to drag her away, and the little old gentleman tugging the other with all his might. "Slap her hands! Slap her hands!" he shouted excitedly. "It'll start circulation."
And it's too exasperatin'. Here I am, a person that likes my freedom once in a while, and a glimpse at the shop-windows, exactly as much as old you-know-who does and a bit of tea afterwards with a a friend." At this point, Gwendolyn glanced up just in time to see Thomas regarding Jane with a broad grin.
Punctuating it regularly was a sniffle. And the key-hole showed a spot of glinting red Jane's hair. Gwendolyn left the school-room door for the one opening on the hall. In the hall were shaded lights. Light streamed up the bronze shaft. Gwendolyn put her face against the scrolls and peered down. The cage was far below. And all was still. The stairs wound their carpeted length before her.
Gwendolyn, forgetting in the joy of the moment, the sorrow she had endured, came back to herself completely, and was even as she had been before! Mr. Meredith, with his family and Aunt Janice, were discussing the wonderful happenings of the day, when into the picture stepped Gwen and her son, adding their happiness to the hearts overflowing for them.
Word Of The Day