Part 16 (2/2)
”It was really remarkable,” he said. ”If she had fought with Kitty, or if she had tried to swim ash.o.r.e and had not called for a.s.sistance, they might easily have both been drowned. It is extraordinary that a child of that age should keep her head, and show such coolness and decision.”
”It wasn't remarkable at all,” Dolly declared, as soon as he was gone.
”It was just because you said that on the piazza that night.”
”Said what?”
”Why, Mamma, surely you haven't forgotten. It was that about presence of mind, you know. I taught it to myself, and have said it over and over ever since,--'Keep cool; have your wits about you.' I said it in the water when Kitty was pulling me under.”
”Did you, really?”
”Indeed, I did. And then I seemed to know what to do.”
”Well, it was a good lesson,” said Mrs. Ware, with glistening eyes. ”I am glad and thankful that you learned it when you did, Dolly.”
”Are you proud of me?” demanded Dolly.
”Yes, I am proud of you.”
This capped the climax of Dolly's contentment. Mamma was proud of her; she was quite satisfied.
A BLESSING IN DISGUISE.
It was a dark day for Patty Flint when her father, with that curt severity of manner which men are apt to a.s.sume to mask an inward awkwardness, announced to her his intention of marrying for the second time.
”Tell the others after I am gone out,” he concluded.
”But, Papa, do explain a little more to me before you go,” protested Patty. ”Who is this Miss Maskelyne? What kind of a person is she? Must we call her mother?”
”Well--we'll leave that to be settled later on. Miss Maskelyne is a--a--well, a very nice person indeed, Patty. She'll make us all very comfortable.”
”We always have been comfortable, I'm sure,” said Patty, in an injured tone.
Dr. Flint instinctively cast a look around the room. It _was_ comfortable, certainly, so far as neatness and sufficient furniture and a hot fire in an air-tight stove can make a room comfortable. There was a distinct lack of anything to complain of, yet something seemed to him lacking. What was it? His thoughts involuntarily flew to a room which he had quitted only the day before, no larger, no sunnier, not so well furnished, and which yet, to his mind, seemed full of a refinement and homelikeness which he missed in his own, though, man-like, he could have in no wise explained what went to produce it.
His rather stern face relaxed with a half-smile; his eyes seemed to seek out a picture far away. But Patty was watching him,--an observant, decidedly aggrieved Patty, who had done her best for him since her mother died, and a good best too, her age considered, and who was not inexcusable in disliking to be supplanted by a stranger. Poor Patty! But even for Patty's sake it was better so, the father reflected, looking at the prim, opinionated little figure before him, and noting how all the childishness and girlishness seemed to have faded out of it during three years of responsibility. She certainly had managed wonderfully for a child of fifteen, and his voice was very kind as he said, ”Yes, my dear, so we have. You've been a good girl, Patty, and done your best for us all; but you're young to have so much care, and when the new mother comes, she will relieve you of it, and leave you free to occupy and amuse yourself as other girls of your age do.”
He kissed Patty as he finished speaking. Kisses were not such every-day matters in the Flint family as to be unimportant, and Patty, with all her vexation, could not but be gratified. Then he hurried away, and, after watching till his gig turned the corner, she went slowly upstairs to the room where the children were learning their Sunday-school lessons.
There were three besides herself,--Susy and Agnes, aged respectively twelve and ten; and Hal, the only boy, who was not quite seven. This hour of study in the middle of Sat.u.r.day morning was deeply resented by them all; but Patty's rules were like the laws of the Medes and Persians, which alter not, and they dared not resist. They had solaced the tedium of the occasion by a contraband game of checkers during her absence, but had pushed the board under the flounce of the sofa when they heard her steps, and flown back to their tasks. Over-discipline often leads to little shuffles and deceptions like this, and Patty, who loved authority for authority's sake, was not always wise in enforcing it.
”When you have got through with your lessons, I have something to tell you,” was her beginning.
It was an indiscreet one; for of course the children at once protested that they were through! How could they be expected to interest themselves in the ”whole duty of man,” with a secret obviously in the air.
”Very well, then,” said Patty, indulgently,--for she was dying to tell her news,--”Papa has just asked me to say to you that he is--is--going to be married to a lady in New Bedford.”
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