Part 2 (1/2)
”How is it, Mrs. Batch.e.l.ler?” he asked.
”May Anne go?”
The little grandmother shook her head.
”I don't often let her leave me,” she said.
”But I want her,” said Judy, sharply, and at her tone the little grandmother's back stiffened.
”Perhaps you do, my dear,” was her quiet answer, ”but your wants must wait upon my decision.”
The mild blue eyes met the frowning dark ones steadily, and Judy gave in. Much as she hated to own it, there was something about this little lady in faded calico that forced respect.
”Oh,” she said, and sat back in her chair, limply.
The Judge looked anxiously at her disappointed face.
”Judy is so lonely,” he pleaded, and Mrs. Batch.e.l.ler unbent.
”Anne has her lessons.”
”But to-morrow is Sat.u.r.day.”
”Well--she may go this time. How long do you want her to stay?”
”Until Sunday night,” said the Judge. ”I will bring her back in time for school on Monday.”
Anne went up-stairs in a flutter of excitement. Visits were rare treats in her uneventful life, and she had never stayed at Judge Jameson's overnight, although she had often been there to tea, and the great old house had seemed the palace beautiful of her dreams.
But Judy!
”She is so different from any girl I have ever met,” she explained to the little grandmother, who had followed her to her room under the eaves, and was packing her bag for her.
”Different? How?”
”Well, she isn't like Nannie May or Amelia Morrison.”
”I should hope not,” said the little grandmother with severity. ”Nan is a tomboy, and Amelia hasn't a bit of spirit--not a bit, Anne.”
Anne changed the subject, skilfully. ”Do you like Judy?” she questioned.
”She is very much spoiled,” said the little grandmother, slowly, ”a very spoiled child, indeed. Her mother began it, and the Judge will keep it up. But Judy is like her grandmother at the same age, Anne, and her grandmother turned out to be a charming woman--it's in the blood.”
”She says she is going to live with the Judge.” Anne was folding her best blue ribbons, with quite a grown-up air.
”Yes. I have never told you, Anne, but the Judge's son was in the navy, and four years ago he went for a cruise and never came back.”
”Was he drowned?”
”He was washed overboard during a storm, and every one except Judy believes that he was drowned. Even Judy's mother believed it in time, but Judy won't. She thinks he will come back, and so she has lived on in her old home by the sea, with a cousin of her father's for a companion--always with the hope that he will come back. But the cousin was married in the winter, and so Judy is to live with the Judge. He has always wanted it that way--but Judy clung desperately to the life in the old house by the sea. The Judge will spoil her--he can't deny her anything.”