"I don't know. Mary Potter never really laughed outright. I think, perhaps, Mrs. Jeffries has only forgotten how."
Belle shrugged. "Well, I hope she'll remember again soon. If she doesn't, Rogie will forget too."
"Now, Belle, can you honestly imagine Rogie a solemn baby?"
"It does take some stretching of the imagination. But—when I look at this wall paper and those chairs I can imagine almost anything. I can even imagine Roger losing faith in——"
"Yes? Go on, Belle, don't be silly; as if Roger's name mustn't be mentioned. I—I don't feel that way at all. Besides, even if I did, I couldn't avoid Roger—because of Rogie. He has just as much right to him as I, and as soon as I feel a little more settled, I'm going to make some regular arrangement for his seeing him, having—him—part—of the time if he wants to."
Belle looked down at the small figure gazing earnestly into the fire and her hand moved toward her sister's shoulder, then drew back without touching.
"Yes, of course, he ought to see him if he wants to," she said in her brusque, impersonal way as if she were agreeing in some physician's instruction concerning a patient.
"I wish," Anne went on, "that Roger had been seeing him right along. I really don't understand, Belle, why you didn't let him. He must think it was my wish that he shouldn't and believe that I was being deliberately mean about it. He must think I am awfully narrow and ungenerous and—and vindictive and——'
"I don't know why he should think that. Naturally he would suppose that Rogie was with you. Besides, how did a poor blunderbuss like myself know what mood you would come back in? If I had let Roger make his own arrangements for seeing him I might have set up a precedent you wouldn't have wanted to keep. Then there was moms and papa. You've grown so calm and sure in the mountains, Anne, you don't realize that the rest of us are pretty jumpy yet. Moms ranted along for days after you'd gone. I don't know but what she might have refused to let Roger look at him even if he had come. Under the circumstances I did what seemed best. You know the family channels aren't the easiest to steer in safely."
Anne smiled. "No, I know they're not. And I didn't mean to be unfair, Belle. You've all been terribly dear to me. I don't believe I ever understood any of you—or—any one—else—before I went away."