Kitty Trenire | Page 6

Betty
drew nearer to him and leaned against his shoulder. "Daddy," she said
in her grave, confiding way, "you won't like it either, a bit. When Anna
was here before you often used to say, 'Oh, that child!' and you looked
quite glad, as glad as we did, when she went away. I am sure you will
be sorry if she comes, nearly as sorry as we shall be, only you will be
able to go your rounds and get away from them every day; but we,"
pathetically, "can't do that."
Again Dr. Trenire was silent. He sometimes wished his younger
daughter's memory was less acute, and her love of reasoning less strong.
No one spoke, and until some one did, remarks would go on dropping
from Betty's lips. It was a way she had. She had never been known to
cease talking without being forcibly made to do so. "It does seem
dreadful," she went on thoughtfully, "that just because Jabez got his
head hit we must have Aunt Pike and Anna here for ever and ever, and
be made very unhappy. I am sure Jabez would rather have us punished
in some other way. Shall I ask him what he would like done to us
instead?" she finished up eagerly.
"I don't want to punish you," said Dr. Trenire. "Don't run away with the
idea, children, that I am doing it for that purpose. It is that I think it will
be the best plan for all of us--for our comfort and happiness, and your
future good. I can't have you all growing up like savages, untrained,
uneducated, uncared for. What would you all say to me when you grew
up?" looking round at them with a smile.
"I would say, 'Thank you,'" said Betty gravely.

"I'd rather be a savage than anything," said Tony eagerly.
Kitty and Dan were silent. Dan was old enough to realize something of
what his father meant; Kitty was altogether too upset to answer. She
was thinking that it was she who had brought all this on them; that she
might have saved them from it. The others blamed Jabez and his
tale-bearing; but Kitty in her heart of hearts felt that Jabez with his cut
forehead and his tale of woe was but a last link in the long chain which
she had forged--a chain which was to grapple to them Aunt Pike and
the unwelcome Anna. At the same time the injury to Jabez was a last
link, without which the chain might never have been completed.
It was completed though, for that their father's mind was made up, his
decision final, they recognized only too clearly, and the glorious
summer day turned suddenly to blackest, dreariest night for all of them.
By-and-by, though, after their father had left them, and they had talked
things over amongst themselves, some of Kitty's remorse gave way to a
rebellion against fate. "How could they have known," she demanded
tragically, "that by just sitting on the garden wall that afternoon they
were changing and spoiling their lives for ever, and giving Aunt Pike
the chance she had been longing for, the chance of coming there to
'boss' them? How was one to know what one might do and what one
mightn't? What was the use of trying? There was no going against 'fate'!
If it was their fate to have everything spoilt by her, she would have
come even if Jabez had never been hurt at all, and everything had been
quite right and perfect."
"I shall never sit on that old wall again without expecting something to
happen," said Betty in solemn tones.
"And you will never be disappointed after she comes," Dan foreboded
gloomily, "so it is just as well to be prepared." At which they all
groaned in miserable chorus.
By-and-by they straggled downstairs again and out into the yard. The
house was really unbearably hot, and seemed too small to allow their
minds to grasp all they had to grasp. They had a sort of gloomy longing,

too, to revisit the spot where so much had happened, to go over the
familiar ground and see if the bright outer world looked different at all;
there surely must be some sign of the tragedy that had befallen them.
In the outer world things had changed very much. The sun had
disappeared, and the sky was heavy and overcast with threatenings of
the storm that had been brewing all the day; the old wall looked gray,
and sad, and uninviting.
"Just as though it knew," thought Kitty.
In the yard Prue was standing somewhat dejectedly, evidently waiting
to be harnessed; Jabez was creeping about, getting out the carriage in
preparation for a journey. He looked quite imposing with his bandaged
head, and he