I was glad not to be called upon for the cab fare, since our funds were very low. Jack disappeared, and Maimie’s fingers went over her eyes again. It was an attitude natural to her in distress, I found later. Robert and I exchanged looks. He signed to me to speak, and I shook my head. So then he went nearer, and sat down close beside Maimie.
“My dear,” he said.
Maimie lifted her head and looked up wildly. “Oh, I wish I hadn’t come! Oh, I do wish I hadn’t come!” she cried. “What shall I do? There’s nowhere else to go. If only I had stayed with father! He might have kept me there. I have no friends in England, nobody to care for me. Oh, if only I hadn’t come!”
“Hush, my dear; you must not be distressed. It will all be for the best. We shall see our way in time,” Robert said, in what he meant for a soothing manner. But I hardly think his words would have comforted me in Maimie’s place; and they were not successful with her either.
“Oh, I don’t know—I don’t know,” she said passionately. “It is so dreadful to be where one is not wanted. I would rather go anywhere. Couldn’t I work for my living? Is there no way that girls can earn money in England? Oh, if only I had not come!”
“How old are you, Maimie?” asked my husband.
“I am fourteen,—nearly fifteen,—and I feel older. Mother’s long illness, and all the nursing, and being alone so much since, seem to have made me older. Father said it would be good for me to have a few months in England, and to be with my cousins. But if I had known—if I had guessed—I would never never have come. I would have made father take me with him.”
“Maimie, I want you to listen to me for a minute,” my husband said, in the kind of still manner he put on always when troubled. “I am afraid you think your Aunt and me unkind not to welcome you more warmly.” The flaxen head made a quick nod. “But it is not unkindness. I want you to understand this. The truth is, your stepfather has put us into a difficulty. We are poor people, and it is not easy for us to get along at any time; and our house is already overcrowded. It is not so slight a matter as you think to find room and food for another.”
“Are you poor?” asked Maimie, with an astonished look. “I thought poor people lived in cottages.”
“Perhaps if we lived in a cottage we might have more money at command,” Robert replied. “Yes, we are poor, Maimie. It is often hard work to pay our way.”