surprise," she said, "Shall I make teafor you this afternoon?"
Molly glanced at her mother. Was the culprit to be received with thecoldness she deserved, or on the other hand, was this most welcomeinterruption to be hailed with delight. Molly flung down her paper andMrs Aldworth roused herself.
"This room is too hot," said Marcia. "Molly, allow me. Another day,dear, when you are taking charge of mother, draw this Venetian blinddown at this hour, and move mother's sofa a little into the shade. Seehow hot her cheeks are. Please run for a little warm water, Molly, Iwant to bathe your mother's face and hands. You will feel so refreshed,dear, before you take your tea." Molly skipped out of the room.
"Oh, if only I might run away and not go back," she thought; but she didnot dare.
When she brought the water Mrs Aldworth was lying with cool, freshlyarranged pillows under her head, her hair combed smoothly back from herdiscontented fare, and Marcia now having mixed a little aromatic vinegarwith the warm water, proceeded to bathe her hot cheeks and to cool herwhite hands.
The tea itself was a surprise and a delight. There were hot cakes whichMarcia had made in the kitchen; fragrant tea, real cream, thin bread andbutter. Mrs Aldworth admitted that it was a treat.
"You're a wonderful girl, Marcia," she said, "and notwithstanding thefact that you have behaved in a very cruel and unnatural way, I forgiveyou. Yes, I forgive you, and I shall thoroughly forgive you and letbygones be bygones if you will give Molly her freedom for the rest ofthis afternoon, and sit with me yourself. I can explain a few littlethings to you then, which will cause the hearts of my three dear girlsto leap for joy."
"Oh, mother, can you?"
Molly's blue eyes danced. She looked with a sense of triumph, halfamusement and half daring, from her mother to Marcia. But, alas,Marcia's face showed not the slightest sign of yielding.
"I think, mother," she said, "that you and I must wait for ourconversation until to-morrow afternoon. I am exceedingly busy just now,and Molly knows our compact. Have you finished your tea, Molly? If so,I will take away the tray. Good-bye, mother, for the present.Good-bye, Molly."
As quickly as she had come so did the angel of order and comfort retire.Mrs Aldworth was now in a fury.
"Really, Molly," she said, "this is _insufferable_. I would much rathershe went altogether. To think of her daring to go against my wishes inmy own house." But bad as things were at present, Molly knew that ifMarcia went they would be worse. A certain amount of freedom could nowbe safely claimed, but if Marcia went things would go on in theirslovenly, slipshod, good-for-nothing style; the invalid's bell alwaysringing, the girls never at liberty, the house always in disorder.
"Oh, mother," said Molly, "don't rouse her; she is capable of anything,I assure you. She has given us just a month to be on our trial, and shesays that if we don't do our part in that time she will return toFrankfort. That horrid Miss Silchester has turned her head, and that'sa fact. She has praised her and petted her and made much of her, andwould you believe it, mother, she has absolutely offered to keep thepost open for Marcia for a whole month. Mother, dear, do be carefulwhat you say to her, for, I assure you, she has no heart. She wouldactually allow us three girls--" Molly stopped to gulp down a sob--"towear ourselves to death, rather than to do one little thing to help us.It's awfully cruel, I call it. Oh, mother, it is cruel."
Now all this was from Molly's point of view, and so it happened thatMrs Aldworth, for the time being, took her child's part; she did notthink of herself. Besides, Marcia had dared to defy her authority, anda sensation of fury visited her.
"You had better call the others," she said. "We must have a conclaveover this. We really must. I will not submit to insurrection in myhouse. We must arrange with the girls what we shall do, and then callyour father in. His must be the casting vote."
Molly flew out of the room. She found Nesta presently, enjoying herselfin the swing. She jumped lightly from it when she saw Molly.
"Well," she said, "what has happened! Whatever did mother say?"
"Mother is in the most awful rage. Marcia has openly defied her. Iwouldn't be in Marcia's shoes for a good deal. Mother thoroughlysympathises with us; she feels that we are most badly used, and shewants you, Nesta, you and Ethel. Wherever is Ethel?"
"Ethel has gone over to the Carters' to explain about to-night. PoorEthel, her head was banging; I expect the heat of the sun will give hersunstroke. But Marcia wouldn't care. Not she."
"Well, you had better come along, Nesta," said Molly. "Mother will beawfully annoyed at Ethel being out. What a pity she went. It's veryimportant for our future."
The two sisters went up together to their mother's room, arm in arm. Asa rule they often quarrelled, but on this occasion they were unanimousagainst their common fate. Mrs Aldworth, however, had changed her moodduring Molly's absence. She had begun to think what all this was about,and what all the agony of Molly's tears really represented. The greattrial in the minds of her daughters, was having to nurse her. She wastheir mother.
"Am I such a nuisance, so terribly in every one's way?" she thought, andshe began to sob feebly. She wished herself, as she was fond of saying,out of the way. "If only I might die!" she moaned. "They would be verysorry then. They would think a great deal of what their poor mother wasto them in life. But they're all selfish, every one of them."
It was in this changed mood that the two girls, Molly and Nesta, enteredMrs Aldworth's room. She greeted them when they appeared in thedoorway.
"Don't walk arm in arm in that ridiculous fashion. You know you arealways quarrelling, you two. You are just in league against poorMarcia."
"Poor Marcia!" cried Molly.
"Yes, poor Marcia. But where's Ethel; why doesn't she come when hermother sends for her? Am I indeed openly defied in my own house?"
"Oh, mother," said Molly, in some trepidation, "it isn't us, it isMarcia."
"It's much more you, you are my children--Marcia isn't. I am yourmother. Live as long as you may you will never be able to get a secondmother."
Here Mrs Aldworth burst into sobs herself. But Nesta was an adept atknowing how to manage the invalid when such scenes came on.
"As though we wanted to," she said. "Darling little mother; sweet,pretty little mother."
She knelt by the sofa, she put her soft arms round her mother's poortired neck, she laid her soft, cool cheek against the hot one, shelooked with her blue eyes into the eyes from which tears were streaming.
"You know, mother, that we just worship you."
"But, of course, mother, it's only natural," said Molly, "that we should_sometimes_ want to have a little fresh air."
"It is just as true," continued Nesta, "that one cannot be young twice,as that one cannot have a real ownest mother over again."
"Of course it is," said Mrs Aldworth, whose emotions were like theweathercock, and changed instant by instant. "I quite sympathise withyou, my darlings. You adore me, don't you?"
"We live for you," said Molly. "You are our first thought morning,noon, and night."
"Then where is Ethel? Why doesn't she come?"
"She has gone to the Carters to explain that we cannot possibly bepresent at the dance this evening."
"Poor darling," said Nesta, "she'll have sunstroke on the way, her headwas so bad."
"Sunstroke?" said Mrs Aldworth, who was now seriously alarmed, "and theafternoon is so very hot. Why did you let her go out with a badheadache?"
"She had to go, mother," said Nesta. "The Carters would be sooffended."
"Of course they would," said Molly. "She simply had to go. But forMarcia it would have been all right."
"Certainly that girl does bring discord and misery into the house," saidMrs Aldworth.
"But she won't long, mother; not when you manage her."
"You can manage anybody, you know, mother," said Nesta.
Mrs Aldworth allowed herself to smile. She mopped the tears from hereyes and sat up a
little higher on her sofa.
"Now, darling," she said, "draw up that blind. Marcia has made the roomtoo dark."
"Catch her doing anything right!" said Nesta.
She pulled up the Venetian blind with a bang. Alas, one of the cordssnapped. Immediately the rods of wood became crooked, and the lightdarted on to Mrs Aldworth's face.
"You tiresome, clumsy child," said the mother. "Now what is to bedone?"
"I don't