“I couldn’t lay down the hem right,” said Lily very dolefully.
“Could not, or would not, Lily? I am sure that you can work more neatly than that. Just take it back and unpick it nicely.”
Lily coloured, and as she bent over me again, I saw a big tear fall close beside me.
“Three and eight, nine and four,” murmured Mrs. Ellerslie over her accounts. “Lily, hold up your head; you must not stoop so my child. Eddy, do not pull off your buttons.” She leaned her head upon her hand. I believe that it was aching, and so Lily would have suspected had she looked at that pale face; but the young lady was gloomily proceeding with her work, and perhaps grumbling in her heart at the little task which she might so easily have performed.
It was clear to me that the poor mother was to have no peace, for again she was interrupted to pay the washerwoman, and had scarcely finished that small piece of business, rendered troublesome by not having enough of change, when there was a sound of crying from the room above.
“Is not that baby’s voice?” exclaimed Mrs. Ellerslie, half rising from her seat. She glanced at Lily, probably intending to send her on a message—at least it appeared so from the movement of her head; but Lily had no idea of reading the wishes of her mother, and kept sullenly pricking me in and out, sitting as if fastened to her seat. Mrs. Ellerslie, therefore, took the shortest way of settling the matter, and herself ran upstairs to the baby.
Master Eddy took advantage of her absence to clamber up her vacant chair, and make himself acquainted with the contents of her desk. A very little care on the part of Lily might have prevented him from doing any mischief; but, whether from ill-temper or inattention, she took no notice whatever of his pranks. When Mrs. Ellerslie re-entered the room, she found her ink-bottle overturned on the table, and a black stream flowing down on the carpet, which her little boy was attempting to stop with a handful of bills.
“Oh, Eddy, Eddy, what have you done!” cried the poor lady. “Lily, run quickly and call down the housemaid. I cannot leave the room for a minute,” she added, provoked beyond even her powers of endurance, “but some mischief is sure to occur.”
“Mamma, I didn’t know there was ink in the bottle—I only turned it up to see if there was any; but I’m trying to wipe it all up.”
“Oh dear! the bills!—and your hands and pinafore; just see what a state they are in! You must run up to Sarah directly!”