The Wind in the Rose-Bush | Page 6

her poor
mother's things when she is grown up," said Rebecca with some
indignation.
The defiant stare of Mrs. Dent's blue eyes waxed more intense. "There's
a few things up garret," said she.
"She'll be likely to value them," remarked Rebecca. As she spoke she
glanced at the window. "Isn't it most time for her to be coming home?"
she asked.
"Most time," answered Mrs. Dent carelessly; "but when she gets over

to Addie Slocum's she never knows when to come home."
"Is Addie Slocum her intimate friend?"
"Intimate as any."
"Maybe we can have her come out to see Agnes when she's living with
me," said Rebecca wistfully. "I suppose she'll be likely to be homesick
at first."
"Most likely," answered Mrs. Dent.
"Does she call you mother?" Rebecca asked.
"No, she calls me Aunt Emeline," replied the other woman shortly.
"When did you say you were going home?"
"In about a week, I thought, if she can be ready to go so soon,"
answered Rebecca with a surprised look.
She reflected that she would not remain a day longer than she could
help after such an inhospitable look and question.
"Oh, as far as that goes," said Mrs. Dent, "it wouldn't make any
difference about her being ready. You could go home whenever you
felt that you must, and she could come afterward."
"Alone?"
"Why not? She's a big girl now, and you don't have to change cars."
"My niece will go home when I do, and not travel alone; and if I can't
wait here for her, in the house that used to be her mother's and my
sister's home, I'll go and board somewhere," returned Rebecca with
warmth.
"Oh, you can stay here as long as you want to. You're welcome," said
Mrs. Dent.

Then Rebecca started. "There she is!" she declared in a trembling,
exultant voice. Nobody knew how she longed to see the girl.
"She isn't as late as I thought she'd be," said Mrs. Dent, and again that
curious, subtle change passed over her face, and again it settled into
that stony impassiveness.
Rebecca stared at the door, waiting for it to open. "Where is she?" she
asked presently.
"I guess she's stopped to take off her hat in the entry," suggested Mrs.
Dent.
Rebecca waited. "Why don't she come? It can't take her all this time to
take off her hat."
For answer Mrs. Dent rose with a stiff jerk and threw open the door.
"Agnes!" she called. "Agnes!" Then she turned and eyed Rebecca. "She
ain't there."
"I saw her pass the window," said Rebecca in bewilderment.
"You must have been mistaken."
"I know I did," persisted Rebecca.
"You couldn't have."
"I did. I saw first a shadow go over the ceiling, then I saw her in the
glass there"--she pointed to a mirror over the sideboard opposite--"and
then the shadow passed the window."
"How did she look in the glass?"
"Little and light-haired, with the light hair kind of tossing over her
forehead."
"You couldn't have seen her."

"Was that like Agnes?"
"Like enough; but of course you didn't see her. You've been thinking so
much about her that you thought you did."
"You thought YOU did."
"I thought I saw a shadow pass the window, but I must have been
mistaken. She didn't come in, or we would have seen her before now. I
knew it was too early for her to get home from Addie Slocum's,
anyhow."
When Rebecca went to bed Agnes had not returned. Rebecca had
resolved that she would not retire until the girl came, but she was very
tired, and she reasoned with herself that she was foolish. Besides, Mrs.
Dent suggested that Agnes might go to the church social with Addie
Slocum. When Rebecca suggested that she be sent for and told that her
aunt had come, Mrs. Dent laughed meaningly.
"I guess you'll find out that a young girl ain't so ready to leave a
sociable, where there's boys, to see her aunt," said she.
"She's too young," said Rebecca incredulously and indignantly.
"She's sixteen," replied Mrs. Dent; "and she's always been great for the
boys."
"She's going to school four years after I get her before she thinks of
boys," declared Rebecca.
"We'll see," laughed the other woman.
After Rebecca went to bed, she lay awake a long time listening for the
sound of girlish laughter and a boy's voice under her window; then she
fell asleep.
The next morning she was down early. Mrs. Dent, who kept no
servants, was busily preparing breakfast.

"Don't Agnes help you about breakfast?" asked Rebecca.
"No, I let her lay," replied Mrs. Dent shortly.
"What time did she get home last night?"
"She didn't get home."
"What?"
"She didn't get home. She stayed with Addie. She often does."