Rolling up her napkin hurriedly, she excused herself almost
inaudibly and left the table.
"Aunt Prue! she'll cry," remonstrated Marjorie.
"Little girls have to cry sometimes," returned Miss Prudence, her own
eyes suffused.
"She is not rebellious," remarked Morris.
"No, never rebellious--not in words; she told me within the first half
hour of our meeting that she had promised papa she would be obedient.
But for that promise we might have had a contest of wills. She will not
speak of school again till February."
"How she creeps into one's heart," said Morris.
Miss Prudence's reply was a flash of sunshine through the mist of her
eyes.
Marjorie excused herself to find Prue and comfort her a little, promising
to ask Aunt Prue to let her go to school with her one day every week, as
a visitor, until the new quarter commenced.
Miss Prudence was not usually so strict, she reasoned within herself; why
must she wait for another quarter? Was she afraid of the cold for
Prue? She must be waiting for something. Perhaps it was to hear from Mr.
Holmes, Marjorie reasoned; she consulted him with regard to every
new movement of Prue's. She knew that when she wrote to him she called
her "our little girl."
While Miss Prudence and Morris lingered at the breakfast table they
caught sounds of romping and laughter on the staircase and in the hall
above.
"Those two are my sunshine," said Miss Prudence.
"I wish mother could have some of its shining," answered Morris.
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