Winnie, at sight of his grieved face, began to feel ashamed of herself, but was still too cross to make any acknowledgments, and, without saying a word, went up to her room to change her muddy dress.
When she came down, Mrs. Burton looked at her searchingly, but asked no questions, and it was not until after supper that Winnie felt sufficiently herself to tell her mother about the disagreeable afternoon. Mrs. Burton only said: "Well, Winnie,—
'Into each life some rain must fall.
Some days be dark and dreary,'
but I hope my daughter isn't going to grow up into one of those unpleasant women who always make it disagreeable for other people when things do not turn out just as they would like to have them."
CHAPTER V.
THE FIRST MEETING.
As a consequence of the lost rubbers and wet feet, Miriam caught such a cold that she was not able to leave the house for the remainder of the week. Gretta Burger was still sulking, and Fannie Allen was, as she said, "reviewing odds and ends," so the meeting which was to have been held on Friday of that week was postponed.
But fickleness and inconstancy of purpose were not among the faults of Winnifred, and although she made many failures, and the words "by and by" and "in a minute" were frequently on her lips, she nevertheless made some progress in conquering her great fault.
Her greatest temptation, as is evident from what has already been seen of her, was to let everything else go and slip off into some nook and lose herself in what she called "a delicious read." And this habit was all the harder for her to break because she had commenced it when she was a very little girl, and it had then looked "so cunning" and studious that injudicious friends and acquaintances of the family, unable to distinguish between a love for study which costs hard work and self-denial, and a mere love for narrative which is easily gratified, had praised her when she was within hearing, and had told Mr. Burton how much they envied him the possession of so studious and intelligent a child. Not that all works of fiction are to be condemned, for they often have a good and lasting influence, and become a decided factor in the formation of a noble character. But like all things intended for recreation, they should be used only at the proper time. Winnie was fast finding out that the proper time was when her daily duties were over, and that was reducing her two or three snatched hours a day to fifteen or twenty minutes. She was also beginning to find out the close connection between various bad habits. She saw that procrastination led to carelessness, disobedience, and, in some natures, to untruthfulness and dishonesty.