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"This is the child I was telling thee of, Bessy Wardour's little one that she had to leave with such regrets. This is a relative of thy mother's, Primrose, and this is Anabella. I hope you two children may be friends." There was a certain curious suavity in Madam Wetherill's tone that was not quite like her every-day utterances. "A Wardour yes; was there not something about her marriage "
There was little persuasion among the Friends, who despised what they considered the insincere usages of society. Primrose caught at Madam Wetherill's gown. Her eyes were lustrous with tears that now brimmed over, and her slight figure all a-tremble. "Oh, take me back with you; take me back!" she cried with sudden passion. "I cannot like it here, I cannot!" "Child, it is only for a little while.
There was a bevy of women discussing this at Madam Wetherill's; the young ones loud in their disappointment, as gayeties had not been very frequent so far. "And I like Colonel Harrison's spunk in chiding Mr. Samuel Adams," said someone. "He agreed there would be no impropriety in it, but rather an honor. And we should all have seen Lady Washington." "Lady forsooth!
"Some of you have seen her mother, no doubt, who died so sadly at Trenton of that miserable smallpox." "Oh, and her father, too!" exclaimed Mrs. Pemberton, putting down her glass and coming forward. Primrose had made her courtesy and now half buried her face in Madame Wetherill's voluminous brocade. "A fine man indeed was Philemon Henry, with the air of good descent, and the manner of courts.
So the old town roused herself to a new brightness. Grave as General Washington could be when seriousness was requisite, he had the pleasant Virginian side to his nature, and was not averse to entertainments. Gilbert Vane had returned with the soldiers, and ere long he knew his friend was in the city; for Major Henry said the brother of Primrose was almost a daily visitor at Madam Wetherill's.
"Julius," to the hall boy, who was shooting up into a tall lad, "go upstairs and ask Mistress Primrose to come down to me." The child entered shyly, Julius having announced "two Britisher redcoats" with bated breath and wide-open eyes. She walked swiftly to Madam Wetherill's side. "This is little Mistress Henry. Primrose, thou hast inquired about thy brother. This is he.
The place is dear to me, for I can see him in every room, and the garden he tended with so much care. Thou wilt kill me by insisting, and a murder will be on thy hands." She spent the winter and spring in the house. One day in every week she went to cousin Wetherill's. The elder lady, a stickler for fashion, suggested that she should wear mourning. "I like not dismal sables," declared Bessy.
Shippen had been out for a little exercise, and withal had some curiosity to see the mad carnival that had broken out in the staid city. "Ah, it is Madam Wetherill's little girl!" looking sharply at Nevitt. "I thought I had seen the child somewhere," said the young man who had caused the accident. "Can we not take her home at once?" "I am her brother," was Nevitt's stiff reply.
In the first place the child had been christened in the church, and was, according to her mother's wishes, to be left in Madam Wetherill's charge for six months every year and be instructed in the tenets of her own church, and to remain perfectly free to make her choice when she was eighteen.
Now and then he paused at some tavern, as they were considered respectable meeting places, to hear the discussions, for he was much perturbed in these days. He was made a welcome guest at Madam Wetherill's also, and met from time to time some notable person, and became much interested in Mr. Benjamin Franklin. Very little had been said about Primrose at home.
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