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Now, girls, I will send papa for you at half-past eight. I hope you will be little ladies, both of you, because I particularly want Mrs. Hardy to be fond of you." "Oh, we will, mamma," replied Dimple. "Why do you want Mrs. Hardy to like us?" "I have two or three reasons. I will tell you when we have more time. Hurry, Florence, and put on your frock; it is nearly half-past four."
I wondered what papa would say next, or whether our talk had come to a deadlock then and there. I had a great deal more myself to say; but the present opportunity seemed to be questionable. And then it was gone; for Mr. Dinwiddie mounted the hill and came to take a seat beside us. "Any news, Mr. Dinwiddie?" was papa's question, as usual. "From America." "What sort of news?"
Often, when I was creeping upon them like a melancholy ghoul, I would hear them say to each other: "Here comes papa," and they would gather their toys and scurry away to some safer hiding place. Miserable wretch that I was! And yet I was doing well financially. Before the first year had passed I had saved a thousand dollars, and we had lived in comfort. But at what a cost!
He noticed by a common trick of the perceptive powers at crises of anguish how the slender white pilasters, carved and twisted in sets of four, in the fashion of Georgian houses like Tory Hill, made quaint, graceful lines up and down the front of her black gown. "It's really true what I say about business, papa," she pursued. "I'm very much in earnest, and so is Rupert.
Then he withdrew a few steps to make way for Woloda. Yet it was evident that, she did not know where to set the box down, and this probably accounts for the fact that she handed it to Papa, at the same time bidding him observe how beautifully it was made.
He laughed carelessly and turned away, but I saw triumph in his variegated eye; yet was I powerless to resent it. "I am leaving my poor papa bound hand and foot," I thought, "in designing hands, but I cannot help it. He has chosen for himself, I will not entreat his affection, his confidence, misplaced as they surely are.
"No, papa; that is your sanguine manner of looking at your own property. And even if I were married to some one to whom I might give obedience and duty, and all that kind of thing, in exchange for a comfortable home, as they say in the advertisements, would you be content with a peaceful corner by my fireside?
Am I to ask him everything first?" "Don't be a child, whatever you do. You will soon find out what pleases him and what doesn't, and, if you manage well, what you do will please him. Whatever his manner may be, he is soft-hearted and affectionate." "I know that, papa." "If he says a cross word now and again just let it go by. You should not suppose that words always mean what they seem to mean.
I had never done it in his presence before, but now I knelt down by the table and uttered all my heart to the One who could hear us both. I could not have done it, I think, a few weeks earlier; but this last storm had seemed to shake me free from everything. What mattered, if I could only help to show papa the way?
Tregear, who was quite willing to go to papa, and had only put off doing so because of poor mamma's death. As I had told mamma, of course it was right that he should tell papa. Then I told you, because you were so kind to me! I am so sorry that I have got you into this trouble; but what can I do? I told him I must write to you.
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